


The Matter Andrews

by Cleobird



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Bisexuality, F/F, F/M, Multi, Pheromones, Rape, Sexual Assault, Violence, pansexuality
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-06-26 20:55:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 18
Words: 28,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15671121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cleobird/pseuds/Cleobird
Summary: “Julia Andrews went backpacking and disappeared near the Spruce Knob Lake, West Virginia. Apparently, she went out camping with some friends she had met on the road and then one night she just disappeared.”Mulder looked at her expectantly. Then said, “That’s it? No aliens, monsters or mutants?”Scully turned her head sideways and said, “Mulder, the world does not revolve around those three things.”“Doesn’t it though?” Mulder said with a wink and put his arms behind his head while he leaned back in his chair. Scully folded her arms and gave him a reproachful look, but Mulder, clearly unimpressed, presented her with a defiant smile. Finally, Scully shook her head and sighed, this man was impossible.“Anyway, the brother of Julia Andrews asked for me to look into the case and there were indeed some aspects that are…”“Supernatural, alien-like?”, Mulder filled in.“I was going to say…”“Monstrous.”“Are you going to let me finish?!” An annoyed Scully called out.





	1. An Airport Encounter

Dana Scully checked her watch, again. She was standing in the hall of the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington D. C. Her army green duffle bag lay on the ground beside her, it was, as any women's travel bag, clearly overfull and thus heavy. With an annoyed sigh, she took her cell phone out of her pocket and scrolled through her contacts. Mulder. Mulder. Mulder. There. Fox Mulder. She pressed call and kept scanning the crowd for his brown hair. There was still no sign of him. Suddenly she heard his familiar voice on the other side of the line.

"Hi", Mulder said.

Scully immediately responded.

"Mulder, where are you!? You should've been here ten..."

"Yes, you are indeed listening to the voicemail of the one and only Fox Mulder, I'm not available right now, but if your business is urgent, please..."

Scully pressed his voicemail away and brusquely put away her phone. She let out a sigh, there was nothing left to do, but wait and hope they wouldn't miss their flight.

While scanning the crowd for Mulder once again, her eyes locked with those of a man standing opposite of her. He, apparently, had been studying her, because he awkwardly looked away. This gave Scully the chance and justification to return the favour.

He had a tough, cowboy-like appearance, which fit him like a glove. He wore a worn, collared, dark brown leather jacket, blue jeans and leather, laced boots. His hair was hazelnut brown and was cut short around the sides, on the top the hair was left long enough to be swept back. He moved and his leather jacket fell open and revealed a grey T-shirt with a muscled abdomen underneath. His hands flew up to his chin, where they rubbed over his stubble beard.

Scully suddenly became aware that his eyes had once again focused on her. She had been so busy studying his appearance that she hadn't noticed that he also had resumed his study on her. Busted and embarrassed, she felt her cheeks redden and quickly looked away. A motion which he, apparently interpreted as an encouragement to pick up his backpack and walk towards her.

"I'm so sorry to bother you, but I couldn't help but notice that you are looking for someone and since I am too, I figured we could help each other." He went silent, then smiled and extended his hand. "I'm Steve, Steve Andrews."

Scully tried to hide her surprise and took his extended hand, all the while rigidly holding his gaze.

He was clearly thrown off by the directness of her gaze and the firmness with which she gripped his hand. Scully was glad he was, she hoped that that way he wouldn't notice how overthrown she was by him. Steve quickly recovered and said with an irresistible smile, which set off all the alarms in Scully's brain:

"Nice to meet you, Dana."

He turned so that he faced the way Scully faced, she kept an eye on him from the corner of her eye, while trying to breathe normally.

"Now, what does the person who keeps you waiting look like?"

"Uhm, he is a Caucasian male, brown short hair and about..." Scully looked at Steve, trying to estimate his height, "your height." She concluded. "

That would be approximately 6 ft tall," Steve said contently.

Scully couldn't help but smile, his content tone amused her.

"What's his name?"

"Fox Mulder."

"Fox, that's...", he stopped mid-sentence when he saw her defiantly raised eyebrows, "not a common name."

Scully gave a quick, approving nod.

"What does your person look like?"

"Well, her name is Cathy, she's Afro-American, I believe she has dyed her hair black ánd white this time, and is...", he turned towards her and measured her, "somewhat taller than you, but smaller than me."

Scully nodded and they fell silent.

"Is she your girlfriend?" Scully finally asked in a desperate attempt to break the awkward silence. She scolded herself. 'How not to be obvious, with Dana Scully', she sarcastically thought.

Steve, surprised but amused, turned his head towards her. A slight smile played over his lips. Scully felt her cheeks get warm again and kept her head stubbornly directed at the crowd moving in front of them. She had made a fool of herself, but she was not about to admit that and definitely not to him.

"Is that such a weird question?" It came out more harshly than she had meant to.

The smile that had played over his lips now turned into a grin and he turned back to the crowd.

"No, not at all, she's... She's just a friend."

"Just a friend?" Scully had detected a slight hint of hesitation in his words, that made her curious to know more.

"Yeah, well we used to date, but it didn't work out."

"I'm sorry."

"That's okay."

"She's just a friend but you're still going on holiday with her?" Scully continued.

"Is this an interrogation of some kind?" Andrews joked.

"No, no I'm sorry I get carried away sometimes."

Andrews laughed, "No problem", he faced the crowd again, "now it's my turn."

"Your turn?" Scully asked confused.

"Yeah, to ask you if this Fox is your boyfriend. Or is that a weird question to ask?"

Scully smiled and shook her head, "He's my partner... in the colleague sense of the word", she clarified.

"What kind of work do you do?"

"I work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

"The FBI," impressed, Andrews leaned backwards and pulled his eyebrows up, "now the interrogation from before suddenly makes a lot of sense." He looked at her with renewed interest and suddenly noticed the gun-form under her jacket.

Embarrassed, Scully looked at her shoes, "I was out of line, I'm sorry"

"I found it quite refreshing actually. It's not every day I'm asked about my private life by a stranger", he laughed at her annoyed expression, which made her laugh too.

"What kind of work do you do?" Scully asked.

"Believe it or not I'm an accountant."

"What? No way. Really?"

Andrews grinned and nodded.

"I often get that response."

"I just, an accountant was the last thing I was expecting."

"What kind of job would you have me do?"

"Pff, uhm", Scully took another look at him. His leather jacket, his backpack.

"Some job that includes travelling."

"Oh I see, you see me as an adventurous kinda guy."

Scully looked at him, absorbed in thought.

"Actually, yes, your smooth talk just now convinced me, the job I would have you do is a travelling salesman and you would sell..." Scully pouted her lips thoughtfully, then she smiled triumphant, "vacuums."

Steve laughed, which made Scully's triumphant smile grow wider.

"Ouch," Steve said, "I'll take the remark about the smooth talk as a compliment, though."

"Whatever pleases you."

Steve laughed again, his eyes twinkling.

Scully suddenly found him irresistible. She felt her breathing deepen and quicken. And before she knew it her body had closed the distance between Steve and herself, so that now their sides touched.

The mainly physical and on lust based feeling caught Scully by surprise and she had great trouble controlling it. She knew Steve had noticed her change in attitude towards him. He was, however, polite enough not to mention it. He did study her and she tried to move away from him as smoothly and casual as possible. When he tried to catch her eye, she quickly focused on the crowd in front of them, scared that he could read the desire in her eyes.

There was an awkward silence between them. Scully quietly scolded herself. She was embarrassed, to say the least. And although she knew avoiding eye contact would only make him more curious, she refused to look him in the eye.

They both jumped when his phone started ringing.

"I believe that's me", Andrews remarked dryly.

He looked at the screen and waved with the phone while he walked away from Scully and said:

"I got to take this, it's Cathy."

Scully nodded, smiled and resumed scanning the crowd for Mulder.

"Where are you?" She heard Steve ask. "No, I'm _inside_ in _front_ of the Starbucks, where we said we would meet," Steve said reproachfully, he turned towards Scully, winked and then rolled his eyes. Scully smiled at her feet. Suddenly she heard a familiar voice calling her name. She looked up.

"Scully!" Mulder yelled, wildly waving. He tried to walk towards her, but almost tumbled over two other travellers who came out of nowhere and cut him off. A whole stream of other travellers followed the first two which made it impossible for him to reach her. Scully waved and signed that she would come to him. She turned around to say goodbye to Steve and found his face only inches away from hers. He was clearly as surprised as her to be so close to each other. His aftershave overwhelmed her. She couldn't think straight. For a second she thought he was going to kiss her, wanted him to kiss her, but then he moved away and Scully could breathe in fresh air again, which cleared her head. She blinked. He smiled. Which made another wave of longing flood Scully, this time, however, she was prepared and could restrain it before it took her over completely.

"I hadn't expected you to turn around", Steve excused himself, "I wanted to say goodbye and give you my card." He handed her a card which said 'Andrews Accountants'. "I rather enjoyed our conversation and hoped we could continue it later, my private number is on the back", he took the card out of her hand, their fingers brushing, and turned it around.

"Thank you", Scully said, "I'd like that too."

"Just text me later."

"I will."

Steve looked over Scully's shoulder and when she turned around too, she saw that Mulder tried to make his way to her through the stream of travellers and kept almost being pushed over by the other travellers.

"Is that your guy?"

Scully couldn't restrain a smile.

"That's my guy."

Steve nodded.

"Good, then at least I can leave you with a clear conscience."

Scully smiled.

"Goodbye, Dana."

"Goodbye, Steve."

He seemed to hesitate then moved forwards and gave her a kiss on her cheek. Scully, totally startled, froze and didn't move until he moved away and disappeared in the sea of backpacks and suitcases.

She touched her cheek.

Suddenly a hand fell onto her shoulder and she realised she still had Steve's card in her hand, quickly she put it in her pocket. She hoped Mulder hadn't seen it, he would probably make a mocking comment about it.

"Who was that guy you were talking to?" Mulder asked.

Scully inhaled and turned towards her partner.

"That was Steve", she said in a tone as if those three words explained everything, she grabbed her overfull duffle bag off the ground and put the handle over her shoulder, "You're late, we have to hurry if we want to catch that plane."

"Did he give you his card?" Mulder asked.

But Scully had already taken off and didn't answer him. Quietly she wondered if she really had detected a slight hint of jealousy in Mulder's question. Or had she imagined it?


	2. The peculiar incident at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After four weeks, Andrews and Scully finally meet again. In the previous four weeks, a lot has happened; Scully got abducted by a psychopath who Mulder believed to have the ability of psychic photography (Unruhe S4 E4), Mulder met and lost his (apparent) soulmate (The Field Where I Died S4 E5), and Scully and Mulder had had a row which had resulted in her being named in another X-file and a back tattoo (Never Again S4 E13).

Scully tossed, then turned. She threw the sheets off of her, grabbed her pillow firmly and lay her head down so that it was facing the bedside table, where the alarm was situated. 03.08 AM. Scully grumbled and sat up, switched on the lights and was just about to walk to the toilet when her phone buzzed. It was Steve Andrews, they had been exchanging texts ever since they had met at the airport. That was now four weeks ago, and although she and Andrews had always said that they would meet each other soon, it had never happened, their (well mainly hers) schedules simply didn’t allow it. Scully sat down on the bed and opened his text.

“I just arrived in D. C, want to meet?”

“Right now?”, she replied.

“Well, since you’re awake, why not?”

Scully hesitated, then replied.

“Okay, where do you want to meet?”

“What about Lincoln Memorial? Never been there.”

“At 3 in the morning? Me neither.”

“Haha, see you there?”

“I’ll be there in twenty.”

“Can't wait.”

Scully got up and quickly put on clothes. She got a pair of jeans and her Maine (the way life should be) t-shirt out of her closet, put on her black boots and her leather coat. Just before she left she took a quick look in the mirror and debated whether to put on some lipstick, finally she rapidly put it on.

When she got to the memorial she looked around the stairs and checked her phone. He hadn’t texted. She looked up and saw him. He stood by the water, which reflected the light onto his now clean-shaven face. He had his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket and he was facing the water, it looked like he was absorbed in thought. She walked towards him, somewhat ill at ease. It was only when she stood beside him that she noticed that something was off. She could read the pain on his face, something was terribly wrong. Instinctively she put her hand on his arm and looked him in the eye.

“Hey, are you alright?”

He hadn’t noticed her until she put her hand upon his arm and he flinched a bit.

“Dana, hey, I’m fine”, he smiled to reinforce his statement, but he could tell that Scully wasn’t convinced. He hugged her and said, “Long time no see, I like the shirt.” Scully followed his gaze and looked down at her t-shirt, "Thank you, do you like Maine?" The text was not what he liked most about the shirt, but he nodded anyway.

"What brings you to D.C, Steve?”

“Oh, you know work and you of course.”

“Me of course?”

“We have been saying that we’d meet soon enough. So when I got the chance to come to D. C, I took it.” Andrews said, “Do you know a place that is open at this hour?”

“Apart from some McDonald's drive-throughs, I’m not sure there is much to do right now.”

“Well then, want to get a burger?”

“I’m not hungry, but you can get one, did you get here by car?”

“No, by metro.”

“I got my car parked not far from here”, Scully already moved to walk to her car when she noticed, Andrews wasn’t moving. “Steve?”

“Just one more moment,”, Andrews said his gaze focused on the water and its surroundings, “it’s so quiet here.”

Scully got back beside him and followed his gaze, she inhaled the cold, night air and watched the lights reflect and play in the water. It was gorgeous. Andrews put his arm around her. He smiled at her, the intensity of his smile alarmed her, but she smiled back. They stood silent for a while. His arm around her shoulders, on the edge of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.

Andrews kept looking at her with a strange look in his eyes, "What's wrong?" Scully began but Andrews didn't let her finish, he kissed her. Scully felt the feeling of lust overwhelm her and their kiss deepened. His tongue slid into her mouth and with each breath, she felt the world around her fade away until only she and he existed. Somehow he got her to let go of everything; thinking all of a sudden became really difficult, she clamped onto it until she couldn't hold on to it any longer and she landed in a heavenly nothingness. He seemed to take control of her, leading her and telling her to just let him do what he wanted. It didn't even occur to Scully to fight him, the only things she was aware of now were his lips, tongue and hands. She felt his left-hand slide down onto her butt and his right-hand churned her hair. His lips felt soft and his tongue explored the inside of her mouth. Then he suddenly pulled away, leaving Scully completely confused, her head feeling way too heavy and she couldn't think straight. Andrews felt that Scully lost her balance and he sat her down on the side of the pool. Scully rested her head in her hands, she suddenly felt really sick. Deep breaths she told herself.

"I'm sorry, Scully"

Scully didn't answer him, still trying to recover from whatever happened to her just now.

"I shouldn't have done that, I just... So much shit is taking place in my life right now, I just wanted something good to happen, I should've known better."

This remark confused Scully even more. He knew she was going to feel this way?

"It's okay", she finally got herself to say.

"No nothing is okay, that's the whole problem", Andrews stood up and started to pace up and down in front of Scully who still felt very sick.

"What's wrong then?" Scully swallowed, she really didn't feel well.

Andrews got down on his knees before her and brushed a lock of her hair out of her face, then he looked at her, "You need some water", he concluded, "do you have some in your car?"

Scully nodded.

"Come on", Andrews put his arm around her and supported her to her car. Where he sat her down in the front seat and got a bottle of water from the trunk, he gave it to Scully who took little sips from it.

"Are you feeling any better?"

"I am, but what about you?" Scully's brow furrowed with concern.

Andrews sighed, "You really want to know, don't you?" He asked rhetorically. "I recently received very bad news", he finally began, "my sister had gone backpacking through the country and..." Andrews clearly had trouble keeping his emotions at bay. He swallowed. Scully stood and shakily walked towards him.

"What happened Steve?" She said while softly stroking his arm.

Andrews looked her in the eye, his eyes were watery, "She disappeared, vanished off the face of the earth the police officer said."

"Your sister disappeared, while backpacking?"

"Yes", Andrews inhaled deeply.

"And the police have no leads, nothing to go on?"

Andrews nodded.

Scully stayed silent biting her lip and absorbed in thought, her hand still softly upon his arm.

"Maybe..." Scully began.

Andrews turned towards her, Scully looked him in the eye, more sure of her decision.

"Maybe I could take a look at her case."

Andrews stayed silent, considering the possibility.

"I can't possibly make any promises, but..."

Before Scully knew what was happening Andrews was hugging her tightly. Startled, but softened by this sudden token of affection Scully hugged him back. She then pulled back and softly stroked his cheek, "I first have to confer with my partner, but I'm sure he will be down for it", she whispered.

"Thank you, Dana."

"No problem, now shall we get that burger?"


	3. Aliens, Monsters, and Mutants

“Julia Madeline Andrews”, Scully clapped the file on Mulder's desk. Mulder pulled his boots from the desk just before the file landed. He blinked.

“Julia Madeline Andrews?”

Scully pinned photographs of a smiling, pretty brunette on the board opposite of Mulder's desk.

“Julia Andrews went backpacking and disappeared near the Spruce Knob Lake, West Virginia. Apparently, she went out camping with some friends she had met on the road and then one night she just disappeared.”

Mulder looked at her expectantly. Then when Scully said no more he responded, “That’s it? No aliens, monsters or mutants?”

Scully turned her head sideways and said, “Mulder, the world does not revolve around those three things.”

“Doesn’t it though?” Mulder said with a wink and put his arms behind his head while he leaned back in his chair. Scully folded her arms and gave him a reproachful look, but Mulder, clearly unimpressed, presented her with a defiant smile. Finally she shook her head and sighed, this man was impossible.

“Anyway”, Scully continued, “the brother of Julia Andrews asked for me to look into the case and there were indeed some aspects that are…”

“Supernatural, alien-like?”, Mulder filled in.

“I was going to say…”

“Monstrous.”

“Are you going to let me finish?!” An annoyed Scully called out.

Mulder smiled sat upright and opened the file, which Scully had just put upon his desk. He scanned the text and turned some pages.

“Nothing truly remarkable. She disappeared without a trace during a party. She probably was intoxicated and decided to take a walk in the woods, got lost and wandered into a river or something, the current would have taken her body downstream and that’s why they haven’t found her body yet. She’ll turn up.”

Mulder put the file down.

Scully walked towards the desk opened the file again, picked it up and started reading out loud. “On the spot where one of her companions last saw her, a bracelet with a broken link and some clear tracks were found, the bracelet was identified by the before mentioned companions as belonging to the victim. According to miss Bracket, it was unlikely that the victim willingly parted with her bracelet. One of the dogs followed her tracks quite easily until they suddenly stopped. The investigation has not turned up any other leads and our officers find it to be a true mystery. And these are the literal words of a police officer there!” Scully triumphant looked at Mulder. But he seemed unimpressed.

“This still seems like a case that belongs to the local police to me.”

“But they found nothing, except for the bracelet and the tracks which suddenly stopped”, Scully saw that Mulder wasn’t convinced and then asked, “Can we at least take a look?”

Mulder got up out of his chair, picked up his jacket and said, “Sure, but I’m not sure what you're hoping to find there.”

“Julia Madeline Andrews”, Scully replied.

 


	4. The Possibility of the Impossible

Scully smoothly guided their grey Honda over the sturdy, cracked asphalt that seemed to have been exposed to mother nature for a very long time. The trees and fields of green flew by, Mulder had lain his head against the window and his eyes closed. The silence in the car was a pleasant one, but Scully had something on her mind.

"Do you really think this is going to be a waste of our time?"

Mulder opened his eyes and sat up straight.

"A waste of our time?" He responded. He was silent for a while, then answered, "No, I don't think this is a total waste of our time. I just well -- I hoped to visit someone that has had a meteor land on his land and since then sightings of aliens and UFO's have been reported. " 

Scully couldn't restrain a smile. "You know most people would call thát a waste of our time", she remarked while changing gears to pass the car in front of them. 

"But most people also don't know what we know."

"And what do we know Mulder?"

"That the impossible is possible."

Scully gave him a sceptical sideglance.

"And that the truth is out there", Mulder added, motioning to the world surrounding them.

Scully chuckled.

Bewildered, Mulder looked at her.

"What?"

"How about some music?" Scully changed the subject, as she grabbed the CD she had copied from a friend. "Could you put the first CD in the CD-player?" She asked as she handed it to Mulder.

He, still a bit miffed, did not reply but did as she had requested.

Radiohead, 15 step filled the car and Mulder returned to his position by the window, he let the lyrics wash over him.

_How come I end up where I started?_

And he suddenly gained an insight,

_How come I end up where I went wrong?_

it was like Scully had said, "I wish I could see that we were going in circles, but we're not, we're going in an endless straight line."

_Won't take my eyes off the ball again_

_You reel me out then you cut the string_

For years he had been a misguided missile, crashing through and into everything in its way. Scully had helped him create some sort of order in this chaos, which he called a search for the truth. She had provided him with a structure to help him accomplish his goals. He looked at the person beside him and suddenly felt eternally grateful.

Scully felt his gaze and asked, "What?"

"Nothing", he said without looking away.

Uncomfortable, Scully leaned towards the radio and pressed the skip button two times.

 _Don't get any big ideas_  
_They're not gonna happen_

Thom Yorke sang and Mulder looked out the window again.

_You paint yourself white_  
_And fill up with noise_  
_But there'll be something missing_

All of a sudden Mulder sat up straight.

_Now that you've found it, it's gone_

"What is it, Mulder?" Scully asked alarmed

_Now that you feel it, you don't_

"I thought I saw someone in the forest."

_You've gone off the rails_

"Perhaps a hunter", Scully suggested.

_So don't get any big ideas_  
_They're not gonna happen_

"Maybe."

_You'll go to hell_  
_For what your dirty mind is thinking_

***

Scully turned the direction indicator on and drove onto the parking lot in front of the police department. She parked the car and gave Mulder a push, who inhaled sharply, rubbed his eyes and yawned. Meanwhile, Scully had unlocked her seatbelt and opened the car door. While Scully put on her pumps, Mulder stepped out of the car and stretched his stiff limbs. Together they walked towards the entrance. The station was quiet, as expected of a station situated beside the Monongahela National Forest.

A bored, gum-chewing woman sat behind a counter, her dyed, straight, blond hair hang flat beside her head, her skin a colour too brown, and her lips a colour too pink. "Good day, sir and madam", she said while aggressively chewing her gum, "what can I do for you?" 

"We're with the FBI", Scully began as she and Mulder showed the woman behind the counter their badges, "we're here for the case Andrews."

At the word FBI, the woman's interest was clearly aroused. "FBI, huh? I'll get the captain out here for ya."

"We called..." Scully started, but the woman already yelled into a microphone, "Captain Huckabee, FBI's here for ya."

Scully sighed and looked at Mulder, who grinned.

"Just a moment, he'll be here any second to get ya. Oh there he is already", the woman chewed, smiling seducingly at Mulder.

Captain Huckabee was a corpulent, small, balding man, with a permanent annoyed facial expression. He waddled towards them and shook first Mulder's then Scully's hand. 

"Welcome, what brings you, two 'special' agents, here?"

"We're here for the Andrews case", Mulder repeated Scully.

Huckabee's expression darkened, "Oh that case."

He sighed and turned around, "Follow me", he snapped.

Amazed, Mulder and Scully looked at each other, they then quickly followed Huckabee.

"At ease trooper Jones", the captain said without even looking at the dark-skinned young man who shot into position as soon as he noticed the captain.

The young man looked at the two persons following his captain his eyes lingered on Scully. 

They walked into an office with a couple of computers, desks and white-boards. Several people were conversing, typing and writing. "Sergeant Garland!" Captain Huckabee thundered. Some whispers were perceived when a brown-haired man stood and responded, "Yes, captain?" 

"My office", captain Huckabee grumbled. 

Scully noticed that Garland rolled his eyes to his colleagues as soon as captain Huckabee turned his back toward them, Huckabee wasn't very popular here.

Scully and Mulder followed Huckabee to his office. "You can sit here", Huckabee motioned to the two chairs in front of his desk. 

While they sat down, Garland appeared in the doorway and closed the door behind him. 

"Well, sir, what is happenin'?" Garland said quite disrespectfully.

But instead of calling Garland to account for this, Huckabee only motioned exhaustedly to the two people sitting in front of his desk. 

"The FBI is here for the Andrews case." 

"FBI..." Garland responded surprised.

Mulder and Scully stood to introduce themselves.

Garland extended his hand to Scully, regarding her with a slick smile, "Sergeant Dorian Garland".

"Special Agent Dana Scully."

"Nice to meet you, Dana", Garland said holding her hand slightly longer than necessary.

Scully narrowed her eyes when he called her by her first name but didn't respond. Garland moved on to Mulder.

"Special agent Fox Mulder", Mulder introduced himself.

"Sergeant Garland, now what brings two FBI-agents to these parts?"

"The Andrews case", Huckabee repeated dryly.

"We were approached by a family member and found it important enough to review the case", Mulder said not hiding the contempt he felt towards the man.

Garland sat down on the corner of Huckabee's desk closest to Scully's chair. 

Scully was overthrown by Mulder's statement but could restrain a surprised look in his direction.

"Well, I will gladly accompany you", Garland smiled.

"That won't be..."

"That's settled then", Huckabee interrupted Mulder and when all three people stayed seated Huckabee continued, "I'm sure you three have lots of work to do."

"Yes, thank you, sir", Garland bowed campily.

"Is there an empty room that could function as our temporary office sir?" Scully asked Huckabee.

"Yes, sergeant Garland will show you", Huckabee said as he waved them out wearily.

Garland held the door open for Scully and quickly followed her so that now he stood in between the agents.

"We would like to start with the witness's statements", Scully said to Garland.

"No problem, I have them on my desk."

"Could you show us to our office?"

"Sure, Jones will show you and I'll get the necessary files. Jones!" Garland called as he faced the dark-skinned trooper Mulder and Scully had seen earlier.

"Yes, sergeant Garland?"

"Can you show these FBI agents to room eleven?"

Jones was clearly intimidated by them and swallowed, "Y-yes, ma'am, sir, if you would follow me, please".

Stiff, Jones brought them to their office. "This is room eleven, ma'am and sir."

"Thank you, Jones", Mulder said as he walked into the room. Scully followed Mulder but before she entered she quickly touched Jones's arm, smiling reassuringly, "In the future, you may call us agents Mulder and Scully", she whispered confidentially. 

"Yes, ma'am, I mean agent..." 

"Scully."

"Agent Scully."

"Thank you, Jones", Scully smiled as she let go of Jones's arm and entered room 11. Leaving Jones confused, but happy.

Mulder turned to Scully when she entered the room assigned to them.

"It's small and there is only one computer, but..."

"There are two desks", Scully remarked.

Mulder got a nasty taste in his mouth when he remembered the row they had had over this. "Why don't I have a desk", she had asked and he hadn't known the answer. Next thing he knew she had a back tattoo and almost gotten herself killed. What bothered him most about it was that he hadn't been there to protect her from all of that, normally he was there.

Mulder watched as Scully took her seat behind the desk with the computer on it and searched through the drawers. 

Garland walked in with a box, which he put upon Scully's desk. "This is all of it?" She asked while opening the box.

"Yes."

"All right then, let's begin." 


	5. Sweet, floral?

Mulder kneeled down in the wet grass. He felt the cold water collide with his skin, but was too focused to give it much attention. His back was turned towards Scully and sergeant Garland, he heard her conversing with him in the background. “This was where the tracks stopped?”

“Yes, we didn’t find any other tracks anywhere else. We got the dogs out here too, but they were of no use.”

"How come?" Scully inquired.

“They went crazy, as soon as they got here."

"Crazy?"

"Howling, running around and biting each other.”

"Did they react to anything in particular?"

"Scully!" Mulder called.

Scully squatted down beside him, "What is it?"

"Do you smell that?"

Scully went silent, she sniffed, and disgusted and angry she stood up again, "Is this a joke to you?"

"What?" Mulder asked bewildered.

"What!? You just made me smell urine!", an offended Scully responded with her arms folded.

"Urine?"

"Yes, urine", Scully's brow furrowed as she realised he was not mocking her, "What do you smell?" She squatted down again.

"It's something... sweet, floral... female. I can't really put my finger on it."

"I'm just going to ignore that you just linked floral and sweet to women", Scully remarked as she stood again and faced Garland, " Sergeant Garland could you come over here for a moment?"

"I'd rather not."

"Garland, come here", Scully said resolutely.

Mulder smiled to himself knowing that there was nothing left to do for Garland but obey.

And indeed there the grown man came.

"What do you smell?"

Slowly and carefully Garland bent and sniffed once, twice, a third time. He looked at Scully and sniffed in her direction.

Scully's eyebrows spoke volumes.

"I was just checking it wasn't you who smelled..."

"Sweet, floral?" Scully said, a slight smile of contempt and amusement playing around her lips.

"I mean you could be wearing a strong perfume", Garland excused himself.

Scully stood, "I'll let you guys figure out where it's coming from, I'll be back with some containers."

"Pffff, she's a piece of work, though I get why you would want to work with her", Garland remarked as he watched Scully walk away.

"She was assigned to work with me, I didn't choose her, and she, herself, chose to stay", Mulder responded bluntly, while still focussing on finding the source of the peculiar scent.

"Well, then you must really have a great cock, what's your secret?"

Perplexed, Mulder looked at Garland, "What?"

Astounded at Mulder perplexity, Garland looked at Mulder, "No", Garland said, "really?"

"What?!"

A smile spread over Garland's lips, "So she's available," he looked in Scully's direction, bit his lip and brushed his hair back. "Well in that case," he began as he started to get up, but Mulder pulled him down and brought his face close to that of Garland, "She is nothing to you."

"Wow, calm down tiger."

"Let's just do our jobs and we'll be on our way."

"Sure, sure. I'll search over there," Garland quickly slithered away.

Mulder closed his eyes, he already regretted his outburst. Rubbing his forehead he looked over at Scully, who was massaging her calves, and as if she had felt his gaze, she turned and smiled at him.

"Guys!" Garland called as he snapped his fingers not looking away from his find, "I found something!"

Scully quickly grabbed the containers from the car and reached Garland before Mulder did. As she squatted down, she covered her nose with a disgusted look. "It's definitely stronger here," she remarked dryly.

"Here." Garland put a hand on Scully's back to guide her towards the spot he found the scent grew stronger and stronger. An involuntarily jealous Mulder stood behind them, he noticed Garland's hand started to move down towards Scully's ass, but before he could intervene, Scully broke away, gagging. She walked away from the place to breathe in some fresh, clean air. On her way, she handed the container to Mulder who squatted down beside Garland.

The latter pushed a branch of a plant out of the way to reveal a puddle of liquid with a torn piece of clothing drifting in it. Overwhelmed by the incredible force with which the odour hit him, Mulder had to close his nose tight in order to be able to fish the piece of clothing from the puddle, put it in a container and take a sample of the puddle. Mulder noticed it didn't leave Garland unaffected either. But he handled it quite differently, where Mulder was fighting the urge the odour gave him, Garland seemed to revel in it, the hump in his crotch didn't lie. He kept looking at Scully who was standing in the middle of the field with her hands in her sides and eyes closed breathing in fresh air. Mulder shook his head but nevertheless found that he was experiencing everything around him much more vividly; the air seemed to be electric and the colours seemed to be brighter. Especially Scully's colours. Her hair, flaming red, her skin, ivory white.

Garland was moving Mulder suddenly noticed, he was walking towards Scully, he couldn't have that. Mulder moved even quicker than Garland, tackled the man and sat on top of him.  
Garland responded with a fist in Mulder's stomach and now Garland sat on top. Next, Mulder's fist landed on Garland's eye-socket, which gave him the chance to sit on top again, the men rolled over the grass. Garland's eyebrow broke and blood started flowing the wound. A fist collided with Mulder's nose, he was vaguely aware of a warm stream, flowing over his chin. Garland's cheekbone, his head flew to the side. Garland's nose. Garland's other cheekbone. Mulder became aware of someone screaming and pulling him. He suddenly felt drained and let the person pull him off of Garland.

"Mulder! Shit! Mulder?!" Someone was rapidly tapping his face. One eye was shut tight, but from the other, he could see Scully towering over him. As soon as she saw he was conscious, she left him and moved on the Garland.

"Sergeant Garland? Fuck, Mulder, what did you do? Garland!? FUCK! Mulder, you stay there don't you fucking move."  
He heard footsteps move away from him and he fell into a heavenly nothing until rapidly tapping awoke him once more.

"Mulder, stay with me. Garland you too, no don't move, stay still I'm trying to stop the bleeding. Mulder, hold this up against your nose."  
Scully pushed some kind of cloth in his hands and up against his... excruciatingly painful nose, from which something warm, sticky and liquid streamed. He held his hand up, blood, he thought groggily, how did that get there?  
Again nothingness.

Again tapping.  
Nothingness,

tapping.  
Nothingness,

tapping.  
Nothingness,

sirens.  
He got lifted upon something and many voices around him were talking rapidly. Like birdies, he thought, chitter from little birdies, it made him smile, but moving his lips hurt so he didn't.


	6. Blood is Sticky

"I told you already, sir, they were accumulating evidence and when I turned around, they were lying on the ground fighting each other. I didn't see who started it."

"My sergeant states that your partner tackled him..."

"And I'm sure once my partner wakes up he will tell you it happened the other way around, sir." Agent Scully stood opposite of Captain Huckabee in the Pocahontas Memorial Hospital, her hands defiantly placed in her sides.

Huckabee sighed, "Look, agent, Garland wants to press charges."

"Then he should try, it's his word against agent Mulder's."

Scully's phone started ringing. Skinner, fuck, what was she going to tell him? That Mulder had attacked someone out of nowhere? That even sounded insane to her and she was the witness.

"Excuse me, I have to take this."

"Agent!" Huckabee called as she started to walk away, she turned back to him, "I'll talk him out of it".

"Thank you, sir, I think that would be in the best interest of both parties", Scully stated as she walked away with a ringing phone in her hand.

***

Scully sought a quiet place and went into a storage room. In the dark, amid the boxes with towels, swabs and hospital clothing she leaned against the wall, took a deep breath and answered the call.

"Agent Scully, what is going on?" Skinner immediately began, "I hear agent Mulder has attacked someone."

"Sir, that is not exactly how it went."

"Tell me what exactly happened and how is agent Mulder doing himself?"

"He is being treated right now, they won't let me near him. My report about the incident will be ready soon..."

"Agent Scully," this was the second time he said her name, this wasn't good, "a sergeant of the State Police attacked by an FBI agent is serious business, I need information so I can stand my man in the storm that is to come."

Scully stayed silent, procrastinating about what to do.

"Agent Scully?"

"Yes, I'm here, sir", she made a decision, "to be honest, sir, I didn't see it".

"Really?" Skinner sighed sceptically.

"I witnessed the fighting, sir, not who started it."

"Agent Scully you have called me 'sir' more times than you ever have before, do not lie to me."

Scully kicked herself.

"I'm not lying. I had my back turned towards them when I heard the fighting I turned around."

"Alright. And I expect agent Mulder will state that the sergeant attacked him?"

"Once he wakes up, yes, I believe he will."

Skinner stayed silent for a moment. "Make sure of that, Scully", he finally said letting the first hint of concern and sympathy slip through by calling her by only her last name.

"I will."

"Good. I'll let you handle it now. Keep me posted."

"I will, sir."

"Goodluck, agent Scully."

"Thank you, sir."

Scully hung up and held the phone close to her chest as she breathed out shakily, she felt drained. Slowly she let herself slide down the wall until she sat on the ground. Elbows on her knees and arms folded she let her head rest upon her arms.

"If you're tired I can grab some extra pillows if you want", a voice spoke from the other side of the dark room. Scully jumped. A young woman sat up from an improvised bed in the corner, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to frighten you, you just seemed... well, spent".

"I am."

"Then lay down, I'll get some extra sheets and pillows."

Scully considered the strange but kind offer and finally gave in to the exhaustion, the adrenaline that had rushed through her veins for about two hours straight was gone and the long drive to this godforsaken place had taken its toll, she was and had every right to be exhausted. 

"There is an alarm clock standing on that shelf over there", the woman remarked, "I'll be back in a sec".

Scully set the alarm for about an hour later, put her jacket on a shelf and noticed the blood stains on her blouse and trousers. The woman walked back in and saw Scully regarding her bloodstained clothes.

"I have some spare clothes that you can borrow lying around here somewhere", she stated as she put the sheets and pillows on the bed. The woman had said it as if it was the most self-evident thing in the world to offer Scully her clothes as well as her bed. And Scully was too tired to protest.

"I'm Mirren by the way", the woman introduced herself as she bent to grab something from a shelf.

"I'm Dana."

"Nice to meet you, Dana, now let's see if they fit." Mirren held up a shirt and jeans.

"The shirt's an S, that okay?"

"That's perfect."

Scully took the shirt and secluded herself behind one of the shelves, but found that the blood had stuck the buttons to the cloth of her blouse and she couldn't get them loose. She poked her head from behind the shelf, "I'm sorry Mirren could you help once more?"

"Sure", Mirren moved around the shelf, "what's the problem?"

"The buttons stick to the cloth, I can't get them loose."

"Let me try", Mirren started with the top button, Scully felt a bit uncomfortable, with the head of a woman she had just met so close to her bosom.

"I had no idea blood was this sticky, it's fucking glue, Goddamn it!" Mirren called out, she then noticed the little cross around Scully's neck, "Oh I'm sorry about that".

"About what?"

"About me saying Goddamn it."

Scully laughed.

"No worries, how are you doing down there?"

"One loose", Mirren celebrated.

Mirren licked her fingers several times to clean the blood from and around the button. Scully started to study the woman. Her dark-brown hair, put up in a messy bun, pale skin, red lips, blue eyes and long eyelashes, her strong jawline and the dark circles around her eyes. Mirren sometimes met her gaze, just to focus on the buttons again a moment later. The tension in the room started rising, both women felt it, neither of them did anything to release it. With each button, Mirren revealed a dark-blue satin bra and more and more of Scully's bare skin. Sometimes one of Mirren's fingers would brush Scully's skin softly, leaving goosebumps in their wake. Scully regarded the woman before her once more, and suddenly noticed that her right clavicle formed a curve rather than the normal straight line. Before she gave it much thought her fingers already trailed the clavicle, pushing the t-shirt that hid it out of the way. She stunned Mirren, who had just finished with the last, bloodstained button. 

"What happened?" Scully whispered softly, still tenderly stroking the bone.

Mirren looked at the strange woman who only minutes ago had barged into the storage room and woken her up from her desperately needed sleep. For some reason, she had offered the woman a place to rest, she hadn't really thought about it. The woman had seemed to need help and since it was Mirren's job to take care of people who were in need it was only logical she had offered to help this woman. Or at least that was what she told herself, but some tiny voice inside her told her differently. Perhaps, there was something else about this woman that had made her do what she did, something that mesmerised her. And now this fascinating woman looked down upon her asking her about her misformed clavicle.

"It happened at birth, instead of coming out head-first I decided to come out feet-first, with two broken arms as a result", Mirren joked softly as she kept looking up at Scully.

"I'm sorry," Scully said, still softly caressing the clavicle.

"Don't be", Mirren breathed.

Scully put her hand on Mirren's cheek and gently guided her up until they were on the same level. The women looked at each other, testing how far they could go, searching for hints they should stop. Scully's hand reached for the hairband that was holding the messy bun together and removed it, letting Mirren's dark-brown locks fall onto her shoulders. Mirren carefully brought her face close to that of Scully. They were both breathing quicker and deeper. Mirren pushed her lips onto Scully's, still careful, still testing if this was forbidden territory. Scully answered cautiously, she hadn't even touched herself since Ed Jerse. It felt good to be kissed again and somehow Mirren's feminity put her at ease. 

Mirren tasted like iron, from the blood-stained buttons Scully realised. Their kiss deepened and Mirren moaned softly as her hands flew around Scully's hips, pulling her close. But that wasn't enough for Scully, she pulled back and started tugging at Mirren's shirt, who instantly understood and pulled the shirt over her head, revealing a black simple bra that was a little too small and pushed her breasts up in a beautiful way. They resumed kissing, Mirren traced the inside of Scully's mouth, while reaching behind Scully to rid her of the blue satin bra. She liberated Scully of both blouse and bra and stood a moment to admire the creature standing in front of her. Until Scully interfered and rid Mirren of her bra. Mirren gently kissed Scully and gave her a mischievous look as she pulled back, leaving Scully wanting more. When Scully came to get what she desired, Mirren didn't let her, instead, she pushed Scully up against the wall. Gave her another short kiss and then tenderly started to place kisses on her neck, clavicle, breastbone. She cupped Scully's breast, Scully moaned, her nipples were hard and Mirren placed a soft kiss on them. Again, she pulled back tantalising Scully even more. "Goddamn you woman", Scully breathed. A smile spread over Mirren's lips, "Goddamn? But what about this?" She held up the little golden cross. Scully didn't answer, instead, she grabbed Mirren and changed their positions, now Mirren was pushed up against the wall. "How do you like this?" Mirren answered her with a kiss, but now Scully pulled back. "Did you hear that?" She asked. They both listened closely, two quiet peeps could be perceived. Mirren moved in an instant, "Shit, my pager, I need to go." Mirren stumbled through the dark, looking for her clothes. Footsteps could be perceived outside, they stopped before their door. Horrified, the two women looked at each other, "Lay down in the bed", Mirren whispered, and so Scully did. The door opened, revealing a man's silhouette, Mirren, who was just pulling her yellow, hospital attire over her head, said, "Jesus, Marcus, I'm coming, calm down." 

"Who is that?" Scully heard a low, male voice ask. She pretended to sleep.

"Be quiet! A woman who needed some sleep", Scully heard Mirren shush Marcus.

"And so you let her into our storage room,"

"She is not a thief, Marcus, let's go."

"How do you know?"

"Marcus, there is nothing to steal from here, let's go we're needed somewhere else."

Scully heard Marcus and Mirren take off and the door closed. 

She opened her eyes and let them accustom to the dark. She noticed that Mirren had put the clothes she could borrow on a pile and her bloodstained clothes were gone. But Scully was too tired to worry about that. She shut her eyes and drifted off to a well-earned sleep.


	7. Fox, the Rebel Under the 'Lupuses'

He attempted to open his eyes but found that only one of them obeyed. A bright light hit his one eye and he closed it immediately. When he slowly opened it again, he found himself in an eye-hurting white room with several tubes connected to him. One, in particular, attracted his attention. He traced the tube inserted in his wrist, filled with blood, his blood, to the bag in which his blood was collected. Drip by drip, his blood trickled into the bag. Horrified he looked at it, then he pulled the tube out. He moaned and he grabbed his wrist to stop the little wound from bleeding. Some alarm started to go off and Mulder pulled out all the other tubes. He got up from the bed and held his head, it was like someone had hit him with a sledgehammer. Nevertheless, he attempted to put some distance between him and the bed. Dizzy, he set one foot in front of the other and crashed into two chairs that stood by the door. Two nurses ran in, a man and a woman. When the man saw the bed was empty he ran towards it, which gave Mulder the chance to hurl himself at the woman. Together they crashed to the floor. Mulder was suddenly struck by Scully's scent, confused he tried to get a look at the woman, but the man harshly pulled him off of the woman. He threw Mulder onto the bed and pinned him down. But Mulder wasn't about to give up he started struggling to get the man off him. "Mirren, get up and help me!" The man called at the woman, who still sat on the ground recovering from the smack on the floor. The woman quickly got up and put Mulder's wrist in a cuff stuck on the side of the bed. When she bowed over Mulder to put the other wrist in as well, again Mulder was struck by Scully's odour. He stopped struggling, which gave the man the chance to also cuff his ankles, and held the woman's gaze who returned it with a question in her eyes. "He pulled all the tubes out!" The man exclaimed annoyed.

Without losing eye-contact with the man lying restrained on the hospital bed, Mirren answered calmly, "Then we'll have to put them back in again won't we, Marcus?" With a tender gesture, Mirren brushed some hair out of the patients face, "Can I release you?"

Mulder breathed out, forcing himself to calm down. "You can."

"Alright, Marcus can you do the ankles?" Mirren reached over him and released him, leaving a trail of Scully's scent lingering over him.

"Thank you."

"I will reinsert the first tube again, so just hold still now," she apologised to him, "this might sting a little." 

Mulder gritted his teeth as she inserted the first tube. 

"I'm sorry."

"What for?" Mirren asked as she put a bandage over the place where she had inserted the tube.

"For tackling you."

"According to Mr Garland, you make a habit of tackling people", Mirren laughed, but when she saw the patient's grim expression she added, "I'm fine, I'm not made of porcelain."

"Still, I'm sorry," Mulder repeated.

Mirren inspected the little wound that his rough removal of the tube had left and briefly glanced up at him, their eyes met for a moment. "Apology accepted."

"What the hell is this about?" Marcus disrupted as he held up a blood bag previously attached to the patient, "why would we extract blood  _from_  a patient?"

"Let me see," Mirren said as she held out her hand, Marcus put the bag in her outstretched hand,"that is strange."

She walked to the end of the bed where the chart lay, she quickly scanned it and frowned. "It doesn't say here."

Running footsteps could be perceived in the hallway and the two nurses had short eye contact. "Quickly, Marcus", Mirren hissed while she handed the bag back to him and scanned the chart once more. Marcus quickly put the blood bag where he had found it and busied himself with a tube.

Two doctors barged in. One greeted both the nurses, "Durnell, Baker", she said with a curt nod. She made her way to Mulder and got a little light from her pocket. "Good day sir, I'm doctor Hayworth and I'm going to shine in your eye with this little light, so I'm going to hold your eye open-- The doctor held Mulder's eye open and shone into it-- Dilation is normal", she stated.

"Talk to me, Durnell", she addressed Marcus.

She seemed to catch Marcus off guard and he stumbled over his words, "Uhm, well, uhm, well the patient..."

"Durnell, I expect you to address the patient by their name," the doctor interrupted him rigidly, "Baker?" The doctor looked expectantly at Mirren.

"Mr Mulder seemed to have woken up and in all probability the strange room and the tubes caused him to panic, seeing that he removed all of them, I haven't had time yet to treat the wounds the removal has caused. He attempted to get out of bed and when Durnell and I walked in, we perceived him to be aggressive and therefore we cuffed him, but he calmed down and we could release him. We haven't had time to check all his vitals. But-- Mirren looked at the screen by the side of the bed-- everything appears to be fine."

"Thank you, Baker, good job."

"Well, Mr Mulder, you seemed to have caused quite the turmoil in our little community", the second doctor mixed himself in the conversation. He smiled a slick smile that made Mulder dislike him already. 

"That wasn't my intention," Mulder responded bitterly. 

"Well, it happened," again the slick smile, "we can't change the past can we, Baker?" 

Mirren looked up from her work on the wound on Mulder's arm. "I guess we can't, sir." Although Baker hid it well, Mulder could tell she was disgusted by this man.

"No we can't, shame, really," the doctor continued, "anyway, I would like to ask you a couple of questions, Mr Mulder. Is that alright with you?"

"May I first know your name?"

"Ah, excuse me, of course, how silly of me, I'm doctor Berry."

"What do you want to know?"

"I wanted to ask you if you remember anything of that happened before you woke up here."

Mulder saw Baker's brow furrow, alarmed he studied the man in front of him. 

"I remember the fight if that is what you mean."

"Right, right, and do you remember what triggered you at the time?"

"I'm sorry, doctor Berry, but I would think that it's the task of the police to ask these questions." Mirren intervened.

Dr Berry sighed, "I'm just checking if agent Mulder has any memory loss, miss Baker."

Mulder saw dr Hayworth look up when dr Berry addressed Baker, by miss Baker, and if he wasn't mistaken there lay a disapproving feature around her mouth.

"We have already established that he has a light-concussion," Mirren responded.

"There is no harm in checking twice is there?"

"There is if it concerns such a sensitive case as this one," Mirren answered immediately, "by asking these questions you could possibly influence him, I think it would be best for the police to take his statement first."

Dr Berry was about to respond when Dr Hayworth interfered, "Baker is right dr Berry, I think it would be best to let him rest awhile."

"I don't think..." Hayworth stopped any form of protest by holding up her hand, "George, please, this is my patient, you are welcome to tag along, but prescribing treatment is my job."

Humiliated and angry, dr Berry opened and closed his mouth several times before he left the room. 

"Dr Hayworth, thank you..." Mirren started, but again Hayworth held up her hand.

"You were right this time, let's leave it at that." And with that dr. Hayworth, too, left the room.

It was silent for a moment. "I'll finish up, you can leave now Marcus", Mirren said. Marcus nodded and left.

Mulder had developed a renewed respect for the woman that was just now checking his vitals. Speaking up against a superior like that, that took balls. He studied the woman. She had put her dark-brown hair up in a messy ponytail, her skin was pale and the circles around her eyes revealed a lifestyle in which sleep was only a liability, not unlike that of Scully and him. His gaze made her uncomfortable he noticed, she kept glancing in his direction even as she compared his heart rate from when he was brought in with that now. 

"What's your name", he finally said.

Mirren looked at him.

"Come on, it's not fair that you know everything about me from that chart, and I know nothing about you."

"I don't know everything about you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I don't know your first name, it only says..." Mirren looked at the chart, "F. Mulder."

"Guess."

Mirren bit her lip and narrowed her eyes as she looked at him.

"Fernando," she smiled mischievously as she over-pronounced the syllables.

"No."

"Francis", she said with a British accent.

"No."

"Ff- Ff-," Mirren looked around her as if the outside world would provide her with the answer, "Felix."

"Close, but no."

"Close how?"

"The first and the last letter are correct."

"How many letters?"

"Three."

"Three?" Mirren held her head sideways in disbelief.

"Yes." Mulder had to smile at her surprise and scepticism, it made him think of someone.

"And the first letter is an F and the last an X?"

"That's correct."

Mirren frowned. 

"Fax?"

Mulder shook his head.

"Fux? Fix? Fox?"

He nodded.

"Fox?"

"Yup."

"I never would have guessed."

Mulder smiled.

"I don't like the name."

"Why not?" Mirren asked as she sat down on the bed.

"Because people always associate me with an animal that is often pictured as being sly, and I'm anything but sly."

"I don't associate the fox with shrewdness, on the contrary, it's the dog that never got tamed. It's the rebel under the 'lupuses'."

Mulder had to laugh, Mirren smiled.

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"What's your name?"

"Mirren."

"Mirren Baker," Mulder said as to taste the name on his tongue.

"How do you... Never mind."

"Dr Berry said it about a million times."

"I'm aware", Mirren said disapprovingly.

"You don't like him?"

"Have you seen him?"

Mulder laughed.

"It's a slick bastard."

They were silent for a while when Mirren suddenly sat up straight.

"Where is the blood bag?"

"What?" Mulder glimpsed in the direction Mirren had gazed. She got up from the bed and walked to the other side.

"Marcus put it right here, I saw him do it." Mirren pointed to the night table beside the bed, she pulled the drawers and closed them again, "It's gone."

"Who could have taken it?" Mulder asked.

"Anyone."

"Hold up, there were only five persons in this room, Durnell,"

"Marcus", Mirren corrected him.

"Right, Marcus, Dr Hayworth, and Dr Berry."

"It couldn't have been Marcus, he was as surprised as we were."

"Unless he's a really good actor."

Mirren gave him a sceptical look, and Mulder suddenly saw Scully sitting in front of him. Confused, he shook his head. There was Mirren again.

Her brow was furrowed from worry, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing", he smiled to enforce his statement.

Unconvinced, Mirren kept looking at him. She moved forward to feel his temperature, first with her hand, then with her cheek. Again Mulder was hit with Scully's scent and just for a moment, Mirren became Scully. 

"I'm fine, I'm fine", Mulder softly, but resolutely, pushed her away.

"Actually there is someone I need to find, my partner, Dana Scully."

"Dana?"

"Yes, have you seen her?"

Mirren remembered the encounter in the storage room and her cheeks reddened slightly, but Mulder was too busy distinguishing reality from imagination that he didn't notice.

"Red hair? About your height?" Mulder added. 

Mirren changed into Scully, Scully into Mirren, Mulder's head spun.

Mirren's or Scully’s brow furrowed even more.

"Please, could you find her?"

"Yes, yes, of course," Scully or Mirren backed away from Mulder.

Mirren, Scully, Scully, Mirren.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

"I'm fine, please, find her."

"Alright, but just lay down and get some rest, I'll be back soon."

Mulder did as requested and Mirren or Scully left for the storage room.


	8. Savings Run Low

Scully felt a cold hand, softly stroke her cheek. "Dana, someone is asking for you," she heard a voice say.

"One more moment, mom," she mumbled sleepily.

"I wish I could give you that, but Mulder needs you now." At once Scully was wide awake, she opened her eyes and was greeted by a pair like her own. Mirren's blue eyes radiated worry which made Scully fear for the worst. She sat up.

"What happened?"

"He woke up and continued his tackle strike, he's quite good actually."

"Oh my God, are you okay?" Scully took Mirren's face in her hands, checking for injuries.

But Mirren smiled and pushed her hands away, flattered by the attention, "I'm fine, it's him I'm worried about."

"Why?" They both got up and Mirren handed Scully her clothes.

"He seemed to have some kind of seizure and then he told me about five times that he was fine."

"That's not good", Scully stated as pulled up the borrowed jeans.

Mirren chuckled, "Understatement of the year." Scully pulled the shirt over her head and Mirren handed her her phone, badge and car keys.

"Where are my clothes?" Scully asked as they left the storage room.

"What clothes?"

"The clothes I wore when I got here," when Mirren still looked bewildered, she clarified, "The ones with the bloodstains on them."

"Oh, right, I took them to the laundry, I'll get them when you're leaving."

When they turned a corner, Mirren quickly pushed Scully back behind it. "Shit, Dr Berry."

"Who is Dr Berry?"

"The winner of the most arrogant, slick asshole of the year award."

"Sounds like a nice guy," Scully remarked dryly.

Mirren chuckled. "Right, but the problem is that you're technically still not allowed to see Mulder."

"Ah," Scully closed pursed her lips understandingly, "so what should we do?"

Mirren glimpsed around the corner, "I don't know..."

Suddenly two, little girls came spurting around the corner. Mirren grabbed one of the girls by the collar. "Stacey, you know very well you shouldn't be running around here," she lectured the little girl.

"I'm sorry Mirren", Stacey responded automatically and without showing any sign of regret.

"And who is this?" Mirren asked as she smiled at the other girl who was hiding behind a plant.

"That's Nova."

"A friend from school?"

"Yes. Who is your friend?"

"This? This is special agent Dana Scully from the FBI."

"Really?" Stacey asked Scully.

"Yes," she answered truthfully.

"I don't believe you."

Mirren chuckled and Scully smiled at the girl's cleverness.

"Do you girls want to see my badge?" Scully proposed.

"Yes," Nova exclaimed as she came running over from behind the plant.

"Nova," Mirren said warningly, "what did I just say about running?"

"I'm sorry," Nova apologised, "but can we see your badge now?" She jumped from one foot onto the other from excitement.

Scully got the badge from her jeans pocket and held in front of the girls. The girls respectfully admired the document, "Can I hold it?" Nova asked.

"Sure," Scully handed her badge to her.

Nova stroked the metal badge inside it and slowly read aloud what it said, "Fe-der-al B-Bureau of In-vestigation, De-pártment of justice."

"But that's not FBI!" Stacey exclaimed, "It doesn't say FBI", she explained to Nova.

Questioningly, Nova looked up at Scully, had the strange woman lied to her?

"It's an abbreviation, Stacey", Mirren answered before Scully could, "The F for Federal, the B for Bureau and the I for..."

"Investigation!" The girls filled in simultaneously, they giggled.

"Exactly!" Mirren said with a smile. Then she leaned forward and started whispering confidentially, "Now girls, we need your help."

"With what?" Stacey whispered too loud.

"SHHH," Nova whispered equally loud. Scully covered her smile with her hand.

"Well, there is this other FBI-agent in the hospital and he really needs Dana, but Dr Berry won't let us in."

"Who is Dr Berry?" Nova asked.

"He is mean," Stacey responded frowningly, "he wouldn't let me have sweets for a whole week."

"But you love sweets," Nova said horrified of the thought alone.

"Yeah, I know," Stacey responded angrily. Again Scully had to hide her smile, she admired Mirren for staying so serious, but, Scully noticed, even her mouth twitched every once in a while.

"Girls, back on track," Stacey and Nova focused on Mirren again, "we need you to distract Dr Berry so that we can go inside, you think you can do that?"

The girls nodded. "What do we have to do?" Nova asked.

"Ooh, we could pull his pants down!" Stacey suggested, giggling.

"Actually," Scully mixed herself in the conversation, "we need you to do something even more exciting."

The girls were all ears, Mirren was as well.

"Do you know what this thing is?" Scully reached in Mirren's back pocket, much to Mirren's surprise (and delight), and got out her pager.

"That's a... a...," Stacey began.

"A p..., pa...," Scully helped.

"A pager!" Stacey said triumphantly.

"Right, and a pager is very important, and that's why we need you to steal it from Dr Berry."

"Stealing is wrong!" Nova gabbled.

"True, but this is for a good cause."

"So if it's for a good cause, you can steal?" Scully hesitated and had short eye-contact with Mirren before she answered, "Yes."

"They're so going to abuse this", Mirren mumbled.

Scully ignored her.

"So, what I need you to do is ask, Dr Berry for his pager, and then run away with it and make sure he comes after you."

"Why would he give it to us?"

"Because Nova has never seen one."

"But I have," Nova said indignantly.

"But you pretend you haven't," Mirren explained.

The girls looked at each other, "Okay," Stacey said with a nod.

They were about to walk around the corner when Scully stopped them once more, "And remember girls, this is our little secret." Nova smiled mischievously, Stacey nodded seriously. Mirren and Scully waited behind the corner, closely listening to what took place only a couple of inches away from them. Scully suddenly grabbed Mirren's hand, surprised, Mirren looked at her, "Thank you," Scully mouthed. Mirren smiled and squeezed Scully's hand.

Nova turned out to be a great actress and had Dr Berry hand her the pager, almost without the help of Stacey. As soon as, Dr Berry had let go of the pager, the two girls spurt away.

"Hey! HEY!" Dr Berry yelled as he chased them, but the girls didn't even look back, screaming and laughing they ran through the building.

Scully and Mirren quickly walked to Mulder's room, Mirren let Scully in, checked if anyone had seen them, followed Scully inside and locked the door. Scully stood paralysed in the middle of the room, Mirren looked at the bed and found Mulder un-conscience, drenched in his own sweat and vomit. "Shit," she said without moving, but that one word was enough to get Scully moving.

"The blinds," she instructed Mirren, who immediately began closing them. Scully checked his breathing and if anything was obstructing his gullet. She was relieved to find him breathing normally and stroked the sweat from his forehead. "Mulder. Mulder," her voice probed through all the layers of his consciousness, "Scully," he murmured.

"Yeah, I'm here," Scully whispered with a stifled voice, she felt her eyes turn watery, even after all this time she couldn't get used to him lying in a hospital bed. Mirren was done with the blinds and came standing beside her, she put a comforting hand on her back.

"It looks like Cold Turkey", Mirren stated.

"It does," Scully agreed, "but I can't fathom from what."

"That's not the only thing that's strange," Mirren frowned as she walked to the screen that was supposed to reveal Mulder's pulse, as Mirren turned her back towards Scully, Scully quickly brushed some tears away.

"What else is strange?" She asked Mirren, refinding her voice.

Mirren looked at her sympathetically and then pointed to the screen, "If it was Cold Turkey, his heart rate would've alarmed a nurse, but there are no signs of abnormality displayed on this screen."

"I'll check his pulse," Scully said as she held her finger on Mulder's aorta in his neck. The room was deadly silent, except for the beeps of Mulder's supposed heartbeat. Scully shook her head, "his heart is going way faster than displayed on that screen."

Mirren ducked behind the screen and followed the wire that ought to be connected to Mulder's index finger. It led to a small device, rather than his finger. She disconnected it and instead attached the wire to Mulder's index finger. His heart rate was indeed exceedingly higher than they had been led to believe. Before it could alarm a nurse, Mirren got out her pager and pressed the button to accept the call and stop it from reaching anyone else.

"Why would anyone tamper with stuff like this?" Mirren stated while looking in the little device in horrified disbelief.

"To hide something, most likely," Scully responded, Mirren looked at her, her brow furrowed in disgust.

"Come on we need to put him on his side, just in case he throws up again," Scully activated Mirren. They put the large man on his side, he moaned a bit.

"So he doesn't drink heavily or does drugs?" Mirren asked to be entirely sure.

Scully scoffed, "Mulder? Drugs? Never," his life, their lives were crazy enough as it is she added in thought, no drug could top that, "And he doesn't drink more than the average person."

Mirren nodded, "So then what could've caused this?"

"It beats me," Scully tenderly stroked his cheek.

It stayed silent for a while.

Then Mirren inhaled sharply, "What kind of evidence were you collecting, before the fight?"

"How do you...?"

"I overheard a conversation, between Huckabee and Garland."

"I really can't tell you."

Mirren nervously licked her lips, "Had it something to do with pheromones?"

Something clicked into place in Scully's head, she looked up at Mirren without seeing her.

"Dana?" The latter asked.

"Of course," Scully said as she got up and went through the drawers beside the bed.

"Where is his stuff?"

"They should be in that drawer, or otherwise the police already took it, as evidence."

"Shoot," Scully closed the drawer again, she bit her lip as she looked around her.

"Dana, can you please tell me what's going on?"

Scully looked at the confused young woman on the other side of the bed that had just handed her the last piece of the puzzle, she made a decision.

"Mirren, have you ever heard of androstenone?"

"I think I have," Mirren said slowly, "androstenone is one the pheromones, it's the oxidised version of androstenol, and androstenol is only egested by males and has an influence on their attractiveness regarding females, sexually speaking."

"Exactly, moreover it is variously described as having an unpleasant or pleasant odour, for example, urine or sweat, against, sweet and floral," Scully added, "but there is more, although for animals, androstenone serves a clear purpose, a role for androstenone as a human pheromone is open to debate, in other words, we have no idea what it does and in what way it influences us."

"Okay, but what has all of this to do with Mulder?"

"We found a large amount of androstenone with possible traces of androstenol, which must have been there in large amounts too, and Mulder and Garland were collecting it, minutes before Mulder... They started fighting. But I need to examine the sample Mulder took before I can substantiate my claim."

"So you're saying that the men ingested a large, concentrated amount of androstenone and androstenol, which caused them to fight." Scully nodded. "And that Mulder is having Cold Turkey because his body after that large amount perceives him to need more androstenol, but is unable to fabricate such an amount," Mirren sat down on one of the chairs in the room, "it all fits."

Scully sat down next to her and took her hand into hers, "Now, Mirren, you need to tell me how you knew it had something to do with pheromones."

Mirren bit her lip and looked down at the ground.

"Mirren, please."

Mirren closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "A couple of months ago, my brother was brought into the hospital with similar symptoms as Mulder exhibits only far worse, we couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. It was horrible."

"I'm so sorry Mirren," Scully said as she pushed a hair behind Mirren's ear, the woman still refused to look her in the eye.

"After a couple of days," Mirren continued, "he seemed to get better, a miracle or so I thought. One day I decided to check his blood for abnormalities and found that the amount of androstenol in his blood was through the roof. It's impossible for a body to fabricate such an amount and so I chose to hang around him for a day to see if something took place."

Mirren went silent for a moment.

"What happened?" Scully asked softly, Mirren turned towards Scully with tears in her eyes.

"I found my mother administer something to him, which I later found out to be a concentrated amount of androstenol. Apparently, my brother was addicted to androstenol, and my mother had saved his life by buying the damned stuff for him from her savings."

Scully noticed that Mirren spoke of her brother in the past tense. "And savings run low," she filled in.

Mirren started sobbing.

"I'm so sorry," Scully whispered as she took Mirren in her arms. After she had calmed a little, she let go of her and looked her in the eye. A tear fell down from one of her eyes and Scully softly placed a kiss there where the droplet was situated on Mirren's cheek. Mirren had closed her eyes but opened them again as soon as she felt Scully's lips leave her skin. Another tear, another kiss.

"Are you feeling better?" Scully asked when no more tears fell from Mirren's eyes and no more kissed needed to be placed. Mirren smiled a sad smile, but then leaned in to press a soft kiss on Scully's lips, "Thank you," she whispered as she placed her forehead against Scully's.

The two women sat like this for a moment, until Mirren got up and announced that she was going to get some new sheets for Mulder to lay on and some water sacks to keep him hydrated. "You stay here and lock the door, I'll knock four times."

Scully nodded.

Mirren unlocked the door and sneaked out, while Scully locked the door again. Scully walked to Mulder who still lay sweating and drifting from consciousness into unconsciousness, "Don't worry, we'll get you through this," she whispered in his ear.


	9. It's Not Something I Can Explain

They had to change his sheets every two hours, he wore nothing but his (soaked) underwear and Mirren was constantly squeezing and searching bags of water to keep him hydrated. Scully was holding his hand, telling him she was there, assuring him when he woke up and started to hallucinate. Their actions became rhythmic as outside the sunset and the hospital grew quieter.

Mirren was surprised they hadn't been discovered yet, although she had bribed the attending nurse, by promising her that she would take over one of her shifts, she had thought either Dr Hayworth or Dr Berry would have come to check on Mulder, but they hadn't.

The room was silent as the women didn't speak much, both lost in their own thoughts. 

As the night moved on, Scully noticed that Mirren started to exhibit signs of exhaustion. She sat down while squeezing the bags of water into Mulder and when changing the sheets her movements became clumsy, instead of carefully lifting the mattress she just pulled until they came off. Concerned, Scully watched her but she said nothing until Mirren had yet again squeezed the last water bag empty. Mirren was about to get up when Scully got up before her. "You sit down, I'll get them."

"Do you know where to get them from?" Mirren protested sceptically.

"The storage room?" Scully tried weakly.

Mirren shook her head, "Don't worry I'll get them, just keep him company, he needs you here."

Mirren left the room, they had unlocked the door because it seemed rather ridiculous to keep the door locked when the only people that could interrupt them, had already gone home. Scully sat down in the chair she had put next to Mulder's bed when she noticed that he was looking at her.

"Hey," she smiled.

"Hey," he replied weakly.

"How are you feeling?"

"Horrible," he croaked.

She reached out to him and tenderly stroked his cheek, but when she wanted to pull her hand back, he grabbed it and held on to it.

"Are those your clothes?" His surprise that she was wearing a Tindersticks t-shirt and flared jeans made her laugh.

"These are Mirren's."

"They look good on you."

"Thank you," she looked down at herself.

"Scully," he began in a more grave tone but seemed to change his mind and let go of her hand.

"What Mulder?" Scully asked concerned.

"Nothing."

"Mulder, what's wrong?" She insisted.

Mulder shifted uncomfortably, but he stayed silent.

"Fine, don't tell me," Scully reproachfully sat back in her chair, arms folded and watching the door.

"There these events made me realise that," Mulder spoke after an awkward silence.

Scully looked at him but said nothing. For a moment he met her gaze, but then quickly averted his eyes. Scully frowned and leaned forward.

"that... I should have given you a desk."

Scully studied him, her brow still furrowed. She remembered their row, her anger, Ed Jerse, the back tattoo. She still could feel the sting of the needle in her back, the sensuality of the moment, the thrill she had felt of doing something impulsive, something no one else controlled. It suddenly occurred to her that whatever it was between Mirren and her, that was the same, something truly hers.

"It's not about the desk Mulder," she finally replied.

"Then what is it about?" He seemed so desperate.

"It's about me."

"Scully, I don't understand. Please, help me understand," he pleaded.

"It's not something I can explain to you." She walked to the blinds and peeked through them, Mirren just came around the corner, she carried a box. Scully opened the door for her, Mirren smiled at her unaware of the solemn conversation that just took place, "Thanks, I just took the whole box."

"Are you sure no one else needs them?" Scully asked as she closed the door behind Mirren.

"There are two boxes, I only took one of them. It'll be fine," she said as she glimpsed over her shoulder at an unconvinced Scully. 

"Hey, big fella," Mirren said when she noticed Mulder was awake, "I guess you're through the worst of it. How are you feeling?"

"Amazing," Mulder said with a pained smile, his eyes sought Scully's but she avoided his gaze. 

Mirren walked up to him and felt his forehead. "You're cooler than you were before, that's good, and -- Mirren checked the screen-- your heart rate is normal."

Mulder suddenly realised he was only wearing his boxer shorts and when Mirren picked up a towel to wipe the sweat off of him, he inadvertently flinched when she reached his private parts. Mirren noticed the flinch and stopped, she bit her lip and looked at him. Mulder felt naked under her gaze. She suddenly looked at Scully, "Do you think a shower is a good idea?"

Scully looked at Mulder. Mulder silently begged her to say no.

"It'd be good to wash all the sweat off of him and it should cool him off a bit," Mirren added.

"Yes," Scully answered mercilessly, "where are the showers?"

***

He stood naked under a lukewarm shower and had two women in transparent plastic raincoats and boots scrubbing the sweat off of him. If he hadn't felt so ridiculous, he might have found it arousing. In the beginning, he had attempted to hide his parts, but under amused looks of Mirren he had given up. Scully avoided to look at it he noticed, Mirren was less discreet, then again she had probably washed a lot of men. 

Mirren had noticed the solemnity between the two partners and tried lightening the mood a bit by talking endlessly, but about what Mulder wouldn't have been able to tell you. He only saw Scully and her smiles, that never were directed at him, but only at Mirren, who returned them radiantly. A pang of jealousy split his chest in two, but he shook it off, there was nothing between these two, it was impossible. 

Scully eyed Mirren. They had silently decided Scully would wash the upper side of Mulder's body and Mirren would do the rest. The young woman was chatting tirelessly although Scully knew she was exhausted, she wanted to bring Mirren home tug her in and watch her sleep, but knew she couldn't take care of Mulder alone, she needed Mirren and Mirren knew that too.

Mulder kept trying to make eye contact, it tired Scully, so she granted him an ice-cold look which should have scared him off, but only turned his eyes into those of a kicked puppy. Guilt spread through her, but she confined it and told it to fuck off, he didn't have the right to make her feel guilty. The anger she had felt on the day she had gotten her tattoo resurfaced, it had never truly been gone, she started scrubbing him with more force and left red marks all over his back. 

Scully hurt his back, but somehow he felt he deserved it. Mirren had reached the inside of Mulder's thighs, as she scrubbed the highly sensitive area, Mulder had to fight to control his phallus, it didn't help that he still smelled Scully in spite of all the layers of plastic that separated them. The back of Mirren's gloved hand brushed his member and he felt the blood stream to the area. Humiliated, he didn't dare to look down and expected Mirren to stop talking. Instead, Mirren didn't peter out for a second, she just continued her story as if nothing had happened and she finished up her work. When she stopped scrubbing, he found her granting him a quick smile that made him and his part relax. Grateful he smiled back at her, but she had already moved on.

"Anyway, she got busted and spend a night in jail, they let her go the next day though, so there weren't many consequences, lucky for her," Mirren concluded her story, she inhaled and turned to Scully, "I'm done."

"Me too," Scully stated as she scrubbed the last two inches of Mulder's skin.

"I left the towel in the dressing room, could you get it?" Mirren asked Scully.

"Yes." Scully left the showers.

"Thank you," Mulder thanked Mirren.

"What for?" She asked innocently.

"Nothing."

Mirren smiled mischievously, she did that a lot Mulder noticed, smiling, it made her dimples appear and seemed to make her eyes appear even bluer. He shook his head, he shouldn't think like that.

Scully returned with the towel.

"Can you get his clothes?" Mirren instructed Scully once more, both agents thanked her for it.

As Mirren started to dry Mulder, Mulder took the towel from her, "I can do it myself."

"Fine, but first let me do your back."

Mulder turned his back towards her, Mirren noticed the red marks Scully had left on his back, she quickly glanced in the changing rooms direction before softly drying Mulder's skin. Mulder felt the tenderness with which Mirren dried him, and he realised that it was the tenderness he found himself craving for. He wanted, no, needed someone to care for him as Scully had always done, but now didn't. He felt rejected and needed some confirmation. Looking over his shoulder, he gazed at the young woman who was fixated on his bare back. She was pretty, even in that ridiculous raincoat. Her eyes were bright blue like Scully's, but with a grey edge, unlike Scully's. Her hair dark-brown which contrasted starkly, with her eyes, pale skin and red lips. She had taken off her gloves and he felt her fingers softly brush his skin and the towel carefully dab his spine. He turned, she looked up to him, "I'm not done yet," Mirren told him without moving an inch. Startled, she did not look away as he put back the hood of her raincoat. And her breath even quickened as he leaned forward and softly kissed her. Her lips felt delicate and spread like the petals of a flower that allowed him into her deepest treasure. She tasted like mint chewing gum and coffee. He put one arm around her and the other behind her head, but she suddenly pulled back.

"We shouldn't do this," Mirren said with a bewildered look, she handed him the towel and left the showers.

Scully looked up as Mirren walked into the changing room with a confused expression on her face. 

"What's wrong?"

Frightened, or guilty, Scully couldn't tell which it was, Mirren looked at her, then she took a deep breath and smiled, "Nothing." The smile didn't reach her eyes, but Scully let it slide. 

"I was thinking we should get out of here," she instead proposed, "Mulder seems to recover quickly enough."

"I agree," Mirren stated with the taste of his lips still on hers, "do you have a place to stay?"

"We haven't checked into a motel yet, but I was hoping you knew a good place to stay," Scully asked as Mulder stepped into the changing room behind her. Mirren's and his eyes briefly met, but Mirren's quickly returned to Scully's.

"As a matter of fact I do, my mom has a motel, I'll get you a room."

Mulder had winded the towel around his waist, "I'll have to change first," he hinted at them.

"We'll leave you to it," Scully replied, helping Mirren out of her raincoat and guiding her out of the room.

When outside, they stood in silence for a moment. Then Mirren seemed to wake up, "I need to change, get my stuff, and your laundry."

"I'll wait here," Scully stated.

"I'll be back before you know it," Mirren said with a wink while walking backwards.

Mulder was done before Mirren and found Scully waiting alone, "Where is Mirren?"

"Changing and gathering her things," Scully snapped with her arms folded and without making eye contact.

Mulder nodded and stayed silent.

"I'm sorry, Scully," Mulder said after a while.

Scully discharged, "You're sorry, but tell me, Mr Mulder, what exactly are you sorry for?"

Taken aback by her sudden outburst he could only stammer, "I... I..."

"Well?"

Mulder stayed silent.

"That's what I thought," Scully said with some regret, she sighed and turned to Mulder, "Look, Mulder, let's just go to this motel and get some sleep, it has been a long day."

Mulder nodded.

They waited some more before Mirren came walking towards them in a low-cut V-neck and jeans that hugged her waist elegantly, Scully was mesmerised. She carried with a pile of Scully's clothing and a bag. "Let's go."

***

They were riding behind Mirren's sea-green Skoda. Mulder sat once again in the passengers' seat, Scully had forbidden him to drive with a light concussion. Mirren guided them through the Monongahela National Forest, to her mother's motel. As they drove onto the parking lot of the motel, Scully noticed the sign of No Vacancy shining brightly. Mirren nevertheless parked her car and got out of her vehicle. 

"It says, No Vacancy," Scully pointed out.

Mirren's face turned grim, "Yeah, that's because of my brother."

"Oh, right," Scully empathised.

Mulder looked at her for an explanation.

"I'll get the keys, two separate rooms?"

Scully nodded.

"He died," Scully explained to Mulder when Mirren couldn't hear her anymore.

"Oh, I'm sad to hear that."

"You have to tell hér that, not me," Scully said as she stepped out of the car.

Mulder followed her example.

Mirren came back with two sets of keys, "Room 8 and 9, there under the stairs."

Mirren handed Scully the key for room 8 and Mulder 9.

"Thanks."

Mulder got out his bags and walked to his room.

Mirren helped Scully.

"Goodnight!" She called after Mulder.

"You too!" He responded with a smile, that never reached his eyes.

After Scully had locked the car, they walked towards her room, Scully let Mirren walk in front of her and admired the way the jeans outlined her ass. Once at the door Scully handed Mirren the key and let her unlock her room, Mirren dropped Scully's bag on the double bed.

"Thank you," Scully said her as she closed the door behind her.

"Maybe I should-" Mirren started, but Scully put a stop to all that by taking her face into her hands and pressing her lips onto Mirren's. The girl responded eagerly, immediately providing Scully with access. Mirren's tongue traced the inside of Scully's mouth once more, tickling the roof of her mouth. Scully put her hand on Mirren's neck and her arm around her waist to pull her closer.

Mirren's hand clambered up into Scully's hair and around her waist.

Scully's hands moved to Mirren's ass.

She felt the familiar warmth spread through Mirren's and her underbelly. Scully started unbuttoning Mirren's jeans and pulled them down. Mirren stepped out of them and Scully pinned her down onto the bed, pushing the bag off of it, which landed on the ground with a smack. But Scully could care less about that. Especially now that she had a beautiful woman pinned down on the bed, who was attempting to kiss her as well as at the same time pulling Scully's jeans down. Scully pulled back and pulled them down herself, in the meantime, Mirren quickly removed her own shirt. Scully kissed her deeply, extracting heavy moans from Mirren. She removed Mirren's bra. Mirren's panties. She stepped back to regard the naked, nymphlike creature in front of her.

Mirren lay back letting her head fall back onto the bed, completely at Scully's mercy. Scully leaned forward pressing kisses on Mirren's neck, collarbones and her hard nipples. She took one of them in her mouth, sucking and tenderly taking it between her teeth. Mirren moaned more and her back arched from pleasure.

Mirren started tugging at Scully's shirt, she held her arms up and Mirren brought their heads close together as she pulled the shirt over Scully's head, kissing her even as the shirt covered Scully's head. Mirren enfolded herself around Scully, pulling her down onto the bed, removing her panties, her bra. Finally, Scully let her hand descend to the heated region between Mirren's legs, the girl was wet, as wet as she herself was. She softly brushed the clitoris on her way down, extracting a longing moan from Mirren and then she slid two fingers inside of her, receiving a hot, soaking welcome. Mirren gasped, she kissed Scully more urgently and let Scully's underlip slip through her teeth as she tilted her head back when Scully found her G-spot.

"Oh my- Fuck!" Mirren breathed.

Scully started circling and inventing new shapes on Mirren's G-spot. Mirren's body coiled and squirmed to engulf Scully's movements. Mirren attempted to kiss Scully, sucking, but having to let go, whenever Scully's fingers moved. And while still inventing new shapes, Scully extended her thumb to caress Mirren clitoris, Mirren's body contracted and heaved as she came. Scully held her, muting the spasms of Mirren's orgasm with her hips. Mirren lay on the bed panting. Scully lay down next to her without losing eye contact.

Once Mirren had caught her breath, she kissed Scully gently, but seducingly. Mirren sat down on top of her and leaned forward to take Scully's earlobe between her teeth. Scully kissed Mirren again, and now Mirren let her hand descend. She caressed Scully's clit first lovingly then more urgently. Mirren placed kisses on Scully's neck, clavicles, collarbones, nipples, bellybutton until her lips finally found their destination. Scully moaned as Mirren teased the most sensitive blob on her body with her tongue and her body twisted and coiled as Mirren's had done only minutes prior when Mirren slid her tongue inside of her and teased her G-spot. Then at last Mirren stroked Scully's clit and Scully came in Mirren's perfect, little, red, mouth.

The two women lay panting and naked on the bed. Finally, Mirren crawled under the sheets and Scully followed, they held each other in silence. 

"I'm sorry about your brother," Scully murmured.

"And I'm sorry about you and Mulder," Mirren whispered as she placed her head on Scully's chest, listening to her heartbeat. _Thump_.

"What about me and Mulder?" _Thump_.

Mirren stayed silent for a moment. _Thump_. Formulating her thoughts.

Scully winded one of Mirren's dark coloured locks around her finger. _Thump_.

Mirren turned her head so that now they were facing each other, "I guess, I'm sorry because anyone can see that you two care deeply for each other, but something is holding you back. I can't tell you what it is, but you probably have an idea yourself."

Scully regarded the peculiar woman lying on her chest, "You think Mulder and I have potential?"

Mirren realised how odd her statement must sound when it was her that was lying naked next to Scully with her head on Scully's chest and she started chuckling. Scully smiled and kissed Mirren, "I may care deeply for Mulder, but I'm laying here with you and not with him," she whispered softly in Mirren's ear.

Mirren smiled again, snuggled up against Scully and closed her eyes, Scully followed her example.

 


	10. Mulder's Night Out

Mirren hadn't left Scully's room, Mulder thought as he peeked through the blinds, and her car still stood in the parking lot. Had he misinterpreted all the signs after all? He closed the blinds and turned to face his room.

Normally he didn't care what the room he slept in looked like as long as the bed was comfortable. But now he found that everything in this room bothered him, from the kitschy wallpaper to the digital alarm clock which numbers shone too brightly. He removed his shirt and pants, put the lights out and threw himself on the bed. For a moment he lay eyeing the alarm clock until he picked it up and let it face the other way. Then he just stared at the ceiling for a while listening for any sounds from the other room, but either nothing was happening in room 8 or the rooms were insulated very well. He considered getting up and checking on them, but then he remembered Scully's cold expression and decided against it. Instead, he felt his anger and frustration build; who was this Mirren that came into their life's and took Scully from him, she was the intruder, not him. He sat up and looked at himself in the mirror which hung opposite of the bed. If Scully could have sex with whomever she wanted, if it was Ed Jerse or Mirren Baker, then he could too. He could get laid if he wanted to. More than that, he would get laid. Tonight. He looked at the alarm clock that was still facing the other way. He picked it up and turned it around, 01:36 AM, there was still time, he just had to find the nearest bar or nightclub. He remembered noticing a bar not far from the motel, Mc- something.

Mcsomething it was. He picked up his clothes and put them back on. He searched for his wallet and the car key, they both had a key and found it in his back pocket. He quietly opened and locked the door. He felt the chilly night air breeze cool his skin under his leather jacket and quickly walked to the car. When he sat inside the car he suddenly remembered that Scully had told him not to drive with a concussion, he hesitated, but only for a moment, Scully couldn't tell him what to do, more often than not he turned out to be right and she wrong. He ignited the engine.

When he arrived at Mcsomething, which turned out to be McKenzie's, and parked the car, he had a dull headache and was starting to question his decision. He nevertheless walked inside and ordered a beer. As he stood with his back leaned against the bar he oversaw the little scene that played itself out in front of him. Several old men were sitting on their own, staring into the abyss with a half-finished beer or whiskey in front of them. The only three women present were two barely 21-year-old friends that were giggling over something trivial and the bartender. She put his beer in front of him, "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

She returned to cleaning beer and wine glasses.

Crestfallen Mulder decided to finish his beer and return to the motel, this had been a bad decision. Halfway through his beer the door of the bar opened and a brown-haired woman dressed in a dark blue coat, a white blouse and black-leather skirt entered, she quickly let her eyes wander over everyone in the bar but did not seem to find who or what she was looking for and walked to the bar. She put her bag on the counter and started removing her coat. In an impulse, Mulder got up and offered to help her. Surprised, slightly suspicious but flattered she let him. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," he sat down behind his beer again, while she ordered a "Gin-tonic, please."

The woman turned towards him and sought his gaze, which he readily provided.

"What happened to your eye?" She asked him.

"My eye?" Mulder frowned.

She smiled at the confused expression on his face and clarified, "It's black."

"Oh right, I got in a fight," Mulder responded not hiding his dread as he remembered how he had hit Garland.

"Over what? If I may ask. Thank you," she said to the bartender as she took a sip of her drink.

Mulder paused briefly before he responded, "A woman."

"It's always a woman isn't it?" She tilted her head sideways, she had beautiful eyes, blue like Scully's. And Mirren's he reminded himself. Why did everyone have blue eyes around here, wasn't brown the more common eye colour?

"I guess," Mulder granted her a sad smile.

"And now you're here, alone," she inquired rather obviously.

Mulder looked at her, "I am."

"And so am I," she held his gaze tightly.

Mulder was speechless for a moment, then rather impulsively asked, "Want to go somewhere?"

She smiled and averted her eyes as she sipped her drink, "Let's first finish our drinks."

"Right," he didn't look away.

"So what do people call you?" She began.

He hesitated for a second, then answered, "Fox."

She gave him a strange look, but nonetheless extended her hand, "Hi Fox, I'm Claire, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," he shook her hand.

There was a short awkward silence before she suddenly turned towards him again, "Let's make a deal."

Interested he leaned in.

"Let's skip formalities, finish our drinks and go outside."

When he contemplated the implicated meaning of outside and didn't answer immediately, she added, "I promise I'm not a serial killer."

He smiled, "Me neither."

"Well then, do we have a deal?"

"We do."

"Very well then."

As they finished their drinks, they avoided personal things to converse about and kept to the trivial subjects. He understood she wasn't interested to get to know him, he was a mean rather than an end, and that was fine with him because for him she was too. After they paid, Mulder placed his hand on her lower back and guided her outside. "Which is your car?" He started but she turned around, took his head between her hands and kissed him.

He was a good kisser, Claire thought as she let the big man place his hands on her ass and behind her head. Her own hands travelled down to his muscled belly, he became more likeable by the second. Their kiss deepened and Claire pressed her body against his before she softly pulled away. "Not a car, I have a better place, follow me." She took him behind the bar where earlier she had spotted a tiny shed. Inside there was a work table and there even were some dirty pillows.

Mulder closed the door behind him and picked her up and put her onto the table as he kissed her deeply. She started removing his coat and tugging at his shirt. He complied to her request and started opening the buttons of her blouse.

While he slowly revealed her blue satin bra she unbuckled his belt and helped him open the last two buttons of her blouse. His hands moved inside her blouse and they kissed again, but she interrupted it in order to remove her slip from under her skirt. "D'you have a condom?" She panted. He shook his head.

"Front compartment of my bag," she instructed him.

He searched for her bag in the dark shed, meanwhile, she brushed her hair out of her face and tried to catch her breath. At first, he opened the wrong compartment and saw something black and leathery which he vaguely recognised, but he didn't want to know. He found the right compartment, obtained what he was looking for and tore the little bag open while standing between the legs of the strange woman sitting on the table. She pulled his pants down and waited until he had unscrolled the condom over himself. He pulled her in for another kiss before he thrust himself into her. She drew him deeper inside her and moaned, "like you mean it." He did what she asked, but also impressively located her clit, which made her breath falter and her mouth sloppy against his. Claire let her head fall back and he kissed her chin. They build up to an orgasm and Mulder heard Claire's breath quicken and falter, she was close, he had to hold on only slightly longer. He thrust and stroked her clit more urgently until he heard her gasp and felt her cling onto him, her nails digging into his skin. He let go and let his orgasm wash over him. She muted the after waves of her orgasm against him and waited somewhat longer before he slid out of her and pulled the condom off of him. When he eventually did, she sat up straight, inhaled deeply and smiled at him.

"That was fun." Claire regarded the naked man standing in front of her, she got off the table, picked up her slip and closed her blouse. He followed her example. Claire put on her coat and pulled her hair out from underneath it before she bent and picked up her bag. Mulder put on his leather coat and followed her outside. Outside she stopped him and kissed him once more, she pulled back, "Farewell Fox," she said while she cleaned her lipstick from around his mouth and bit her oh-so-red lip. Mulder felt the urge to push her up against the wall and take her once more, but she already turned her back towards him and walked to the parking lot. He followed her and saw her throw her bag into a dull, grey Honda. He turned to unlock his own grey Skoda and heard her ignite the engine and drive off. He sat inside his car and felt the headache press behind his eyes once more. He closed his eyes, he didn't want to go back, Scully's attitude hurt him more than he dared to admit and the worst thing was that he didn't know what to do to change her feelings towards him. He put his head in his hands. What had he been trying to prove by coming here and by fucking Claire? He felt long-suppressed emotions well up from deep inside of him, he fought to keep them down. Scully wouldn't leave him, she never did, eventually, she would come back to him, he told himself. Would she? Would she really? A voice inside him asked him. It was his quest for the truth, his, not hers, that was where it had gone wrong, where he had lost her. And now she had found somebody else, she found Mirren. He felt a tear slide down his cheek, he angrily brushed it off his face and ignited the engine to return to the motel.


	11. Mirren's Happiness

Mirren woke up and discovered the spot beside her to be empty and the shower raining. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, then got up and walked inside the bathroom where she found Scully standing in the shower, back turned towards her. Mirren stepped into the shower and softly placed her arms around Scully’s body, placing a kiss in her neck. Scully looked over her shoulder with a smile and briefly kissed Mirren on her mouth. “I wanted to be at the police station at nine, it’s eight thirty, so I don’t really have time,” Scully said regretfully.

“Hmm,” Mirren responded, placing her head in the crook of Scully's neck, “This’ll only take a minute.”

“Mirren,” Scully protested. But Mirren turned her around and kissed her on her mouth so that she couldn’t speak. “Quiet woman,” she mumbled.

Scully pulled back, “You realise the sexist implications that statement conjures.”

Mirren only smiled provocatively, pulled Scully back towards her and repeated, “Quiet woman.”

Scully kissed her, deeply, then pulled back, “Mirren, however much I love you, I need to shower and get dressed, so you need to leave.”

“However much you love me?” Mirren grinned.

Scully felt her cheeks redden from embarrassment and a cold, iron fist clutched itself around her heart in an agonizing fear of rejection, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to force you to… I mean…” She stuttered.

Mirren didn’t let her finish and gave her a quick, but yearning kiss, “I love you too.” She got out the shower and left little pools of water wherever she put her feet, but she didn’t bother drying herself, she simply let herself fall back onto the bed and waited for Scully to finish showering. She stared at the ceiling and realised she was smiling. It was a different kind of smiling than the normal kind of smiling though. She didn’t know this kind of smiling. It was as if she was smiling with her whole body, with her whole being. She felt like she could burst into little rays of sunshine.

“I am happy,” she whispered to herself. “I am happy,” she said loudly.

“Did you say something?!” Scully yelled from the shower.

Mirren smile, if possible, broadened, “No, nothing!”

***

Scully got out of the shower and found Mirren laying wet, naked and smiling on the bed. It made _her_ smile. She leaned over the naked woman and kissed her, Mirren wrapped her wet arms around her and Scully screamed inside their conjoined mouths and pulled back. “Mirren!” She yelled out reproachfully.

“I’m sorry,” Mirren apologised without any sign of regret.

“Look what you did, the back of my jacket is completely soaked!”

Mirren sat up and tilted her head sideways like a puppy, “I still think you’re beautiful, wet or not wet.”

The genuineness of the statement hit Scully and she bit her lip to keep herself from either laughing or crying she wasn't sure which, “You need to get dressed,” she urged Mirren.

Mirren nodded. Her gaze so open and innocent Scully couldn’t resist and leaned in once more to give her a kiss. “Hop now, get into that shower.”

As Mirren stepped into the shower, Scully started gathering her stuff. When she had all of it she knocked on the shower door, “Mirren I’m leaving!” The shower stopped and a soaked Mirren poked her head from behind the door. “Have a nice day at work honey!” She said with a smug smile. “Shut up you,” Scully responded as she kissed Mirren goodbye.

***

Scully knocked on Mulder’s door. Once. Twice. A third time. She checked if the car was still there, it was. Hadn’t she parked it in a different spot though? Mulder opened the door, toothbrush in his mouth. “I’ll be ready in a sec," he stated with a mouthful of toothpaste.

He left the door open and Scully walked inside as she waited for him. She stood a bit awkwardly as he gathered his things. “Mulder, they’ll want our statements and you need to tell them that Garland, tackled you first,” she got straight to the point.

Surprised Mulder looked at her, “Why? I did tackle him first. You saw me.”

“I didn’t,” Scully said resolutely, “so it will be his word against yours. And Huckabee will try to talk Garland out of pressing charges.”

Mulder nodded, “All right.”

They were silent for a moment.

“How are you feeling?” Scully inquired.

“Tired.”

“Any dizziness or headaches?”

“No,” he lied.

“Don’t lie to me, Mulder.”

“Okay, okay, only some dull headaches.”

Scully walked up to him and took his head in her hands looking him straight in the eye. He smelled her own familiar scent, but also something else, something that didn’t belong there. Chamomile, he realised. Mirren’s odour.

Scully held out her finger in front of his eyes. “Follow my finger with your eyes.”

Mulder did.

Reassured, Scully let go of him. “Are you ready?”

Mulder felt his pockets, badge, phone, keys and wallet, “I’m ready.”

Together they left for the station. When Scully drove the car out of the parking lot, she didn’t see the red Toyota that waited for her and Mulder to leave and then drove onto the Motel's parking lot.


	12. Mirren's Past, Present, and Future

Mirren put her hairband between her teeth as she pulled her hair up to put it in a bun with one hand and opened the door of room 8 with the other. She turned to shut the door behind her and took the hairband out of her mouth to put it in her hair as she walked onto the motels parking lot. She froze, the ice-cold hand of fear gripping her by the throat.

‘It figures that the two FBI agents investigating my sister’s disappearance would be staying in your motel,” Steve Andrews remarked bitterly as he leaned against her car. He had parked his red Toyota behind her Skoda so that it would be impossible for her to leave. She was trapped like a mouse, and he as the cat was already licking its lips.

Mirren stood paralysed, panic spreading like a disease and taking over her body. She forced herself to move her mouth, “You should leave,” her voice sounded frail.

“Leave? But I just got here,” Steve threatened as he pushed himself away from the car and approached Mirren, “and I wanted to talk to you about something, something that happened about... nine years ago, remember?” His face was contorted in grief and anger.

Mirren backed away, “Don’t- Don’t come near- STOP!” She screamed at him and she frantically grabbed her phone from her pocket, “I’ll- I’ll call the police.”

Steve lunged himself at her before she could call anyone, her phone dropped onto the parking lot as he pinned her against the motel’s wall. Mirren felt her head cloud with each breath she took, she panicked, tried to hold her breath, kicked him, hit him, anything to get loose.

But Steve was simply stronger, he regarded the struggling woman with disdain. “It must be so distressful when your own body deceives you. Especially, if it's such a simple thing as pheromones that gets you to your knees.” He brought his head closer to hers and saw all resistance fade from her eyes with each breath she took, “Good girl,” he whispered in her ear, “you haven’t changed a day, you know, only this – he grabbed her right boob – and this – his hand squeezed her ass – is new, it actually makes you more likeable.”

Mirren only gaped at him, the clouds had replaced her fear with lust. Steve still only looked at her, eyes filled with hate, anger and grief. He put his hand around her throat and began to squeeze. Mirren started gasping for breath, her head turning red. The clouds faded from her head and the fear of the crazed, dangerous man squeezing her throat tightly returned. She started struggling again. But Steve didn’t care, he started trembling, tears streamed down his cheeks, “Is this what you did? Is this it?” He screamed at Mirren and he kept squeezing.

Mirren started losing consciousness, she choked, her vision turning black, her eyes rolled back in her head and Steve let go. She fell to the ground gasping for breath and Steve let his head fall into his hands while sobbing uncontrollably. Mirren tried to crawl to safety, away from her assailant. She almost reached her phone, when Steve’s sobbing suddenly stopped, she felt him grab her legs and pull her back into his reach. She tried to scream but the only sound her hurt throat made was a brief shriek followed by coughing.

He had seen her attempts to get away, pathetic. She was pathetic. He realised he wanted to hurt her, make her feel what she had done to him, to his family. He heard her attempt to scream as he pulled her back, but he didn’t care. He knew how to inflict pain, how to hurt her so deeply and so badly she might never recover. Like he never had. He turned her over so that she now faced him as he towered over her and held her down with his foot on her chest.

“Steve,” Mirren rasped, “please.” Tears were streaming down her in horror, pain and fear contorted face. But he was beyond reason, beyond caring, he wanted to make her suffer. He unbuckled his belt.

Mirren understood what he planning to do to her, “Steve,” more coughing, “please, don’t.”

Her coughing became annoying, Steve reached out and unbuttoned her trousers. Mirren squirmed and coiled to fight him off, but he simply grabbed both her wrists with one hand and pinned them down above her head. With the other hand he pulled her pant down, her panties were easy, he just ripped them loose. His own pants were next. He positioned himself above her and spread her legs with force and thrust himself inside of her. Mirren screamed and screamed again and again, but the only thing that could be perceived were short moments of sound followed by painful coughing. No one heard her, she was on her one, her phone laying lost and alone in the gravel of the abandoned parking lot.

***

Mulder was indeed called in for questioning, but not in an interview room like they had expected. Huckabee simply asked him to follow him to his office to answer some questions. Scully could wait outside. "I will be in the office," she told him.

He nodded and followed Huckabee. Huckabee sat himself down with a weary sigh. Everything about this man seemed exhausted, his walk, his manner of speaking, even the way he sat down, Mulder thought in amazement.

"Please sit down, agent Mulder."

"Thank you, sir."

"Now, agent, you got us all in a big scrape."

"Where two quarrel, two are guilty, if I may say so, sir," Mulder responded.

"You definitely may," Huckabee held Mulder's gaze tightly. Mulder didn't flinch.

Again a tired sigh.

"What happened according to you?"

"Garland tackled me from behind sir and then we started hitting each other."

"Garland instigated the fight?"

"Yes, sir, according to my knowledge he did."

"Alright," Huckabee nodded and didn't probe Mulder any further, he even seemed pleased, "you can leave agent."

"Thank you, sir."

"How is the investigation coming along?" Huckabee inquired just before Mulder left.

Mulder thought about Scully's explanation in the car, "It's coming along nicely, sir," he smiled, "Good day, sir."

"Good day, agent."

But just before he left, Mulder turned again, "Can I ask you something, sir?"

"Shoot."

"Do you have anything on a Mirren Baker?"

Huckabee's brow furrowed, his expression turned grim.

"It's in the archive, probably under Andrews."

"Andrews?"

But Huckabee was tapping his fingers impatiently, "Jones will help you find it, just tell me I asked him to."

"Thank you, sir," Mulder left.

***

Mirren had flashbacks to nine years ago when she had forced herself up in a similar way, trying to ignore the incredible pain in her body and the excruciating pain that split her soul. There were differences, however, like the blood, now it was only her own. The blood and she now knew what to do. She forced herself onto hands and knees and crawled to the phone laying in the gravel. Tears still fell down her cheeks uncontrollably, and her body trembled like a leaf. The gravel hurt her knees, but it was a welcome change from the pain in the area between her legs. She picked up the phone and dialled 911. 

"You have reached the emergency telephone line, please press 1 for the police, 2 for-, Mirren pressed 1. The dial tone rang once, twice. 

"911, what are you reporting?" A woman asked Mirren.

Mirren swallowed painfully and rasped, "I've just been raped."

"Okay, madam, is the assailant still there with you?"

Mirren swallowed, "No he left." Steve had just left her laying there, panties ripped, blood dripping from her vagina. She hoped he hadn't contracted an STD and passed it on to her. God, she felt so filthy.

"Are you currently at Baker's motel 33 US Highway 220 in Franklin, madam?" They had traced her call, good, she wouldn't have been able to tell the operator her address, not with her throat hurting like this.

"Yes," Mirren croaked.

"A patrol car and ambulance are on their way to you right now."

"Thank you," Mirren breathed and she let the phone slide from her hand, she heard the operator yell into the phone but she was too exhausted to answer. She lay back into the gravel and slipped into lovely nothingness.

***

A from Andrews, Mulder thought as he flipped through the box with files. Abbott, Abrams, a lot of Adams's, Alden, Anderson and at last; Andrews. Edward Andrews killed nineteenth of June, 1986. Suspect: Mirren Baker. Shocked Mulder let himself fall back into the chair behind the bureau he had been working on. 

"Do you have what you're looking for agent Mulder?" Jones asked from the other side of the room.

"Yes, Jones, thank you, you can leave."

Jones left and Mulder read on.

According to the report, Mirren had bashed Edward's head in with a stone, after he had raped her multiple times. She had been 14 at the time. Mulder let it all sink in. Scully needed to know this. Mulder got up and ran upstairs, clinging on to the file. He hurried through the corridors to room eleven. "Scully, you need to hear this!" He began as he walked into the room, but he found it empty. Jones appeared in the doorway behind him, "She's gone to the hospital, a friend of hers got hurt."

"Which friend? Which hospital?" Mulder asked agitated and startled Jones.

"The Pocahontas Hospital," Jones answered the last question.

"Which friend?"

"A certain Mirror?"

"Mirren Baker?"

"Could be."

"Could you drive me there?"

Jones frowned.

"I have a concussion I can't drive," Mulder clarified, now was not the time to have headaches from straining a concussed brain.

"I'd have to ask Captain Huckabee..."

"No you don't, an FBI agent is asking you to help him, come on," Mulder left for the parking lot.

Jones hesitated for a moment, looking at his bosses office, but decided that there wasn't much to do for him here anyway and followed the FBI agent outside.


	13. Hey Princess, Your Car Is That Way

Scully raced the car over the cracked, asphalt highways of West-Virginia. The hospital had called her and told her Mirren was in the hospital and was asking for her. What happened? Had been her next question, but now she realized she hadn’t wanted to know. It felt as if every fibre of her being was filled with guilt. Why had she left Mirren there alone? She should have called her, would have known something was off when she hadn’t answered the phone, she could have prevented it with a simple phone call. Should’ve, would’ve, could’ve. She hadn’t and now Mirren suffered the consequences.

She honked at the car in front of her, it was going way too slow. “Come on!” Scully hit the wheel. She swerved left to see if she could pass it. She could and raced past him.

“Crazy bitch!” The white-haired, wrinkled man in the car she passed swore at her, “The speed limit is 70, for Christ sakes,” he turned to his wife, “the world gets crazier by the day.”

His wife nodded in silent agreement but quietly wondered what made the red-haired woman drive in such a reckless manner. Love, she thought with a smile, only love made people put their life’s on the line for others. She looked at her husband, her expression turned grim, or maybe it was hate, people do crazy things to get their revenge.

“You shouldn’t have called that woman a bitch,” the woman said to her husband in a sudden surge of courage.

Surprised, her husband looked at her, “Why not?”

“Perhaps she’s on her way to a dying loved one, or there may be some other way to justify her actions, you shouldn’t judge people that fast. And if you don’t, you’ll find the world much less crazy.”

Her husband stayed quiet for a moment, then responded, “Who have you been talking to?”

The woman looked out the window as she felt her anger grow, “Do you think it’d be possible that I thought of it myself?” She answered with a strained voice.

Her husband had known his wife long enough to recognise her strained voice for what it was; suppressed anger and he knew that answering her could have serious consequences. Therefore he wisely avoided a commentary.

His wife suddenly looked at him, “I want to drive.”

“You want what!?”

“To drive, park the car at the side of the road, I’m driving.”

“Maggy-”

“Oh don’t you Maggy me, you bastard, park the Goddamn car.”

There was nothing left for the man to do but park the car and switch places with his wife.

“Maggy be realistic,” the man attempted to talk some sense into his wife, “you haven’t driven since-”

“Since I married you, but now that’s going to change, honey.” And more is going to change she quietly added, much more, oh how she’d enjoy telling her friends about this. Now how did this thing work again? She pressed the clutch like the million times she had done when she was a girl. Switched into first gear, let the clutch come up and felt the car come to life underneath her. She had missed this.

Next thing the man knew, his wife was racing after the red-haired woman that had put all of these events in (Scully-)effect.

***

Scully arrived at the hospital, parked the car more askew than she would have had it been under other circumstances and ran inside. “Baker, Mirren, where is she?” She yelled at the counter assistant who, completely blindsided, only blinked. Scully ran past him into the hospital caught sight of Dr Hayworth and clung on to her. “Where is Mirren,” she asked out of breath.

Dr Hayworth regarded the anxious woman in front of her and had enough sense to give her Mirren’s exact location. “Room 14, three doors to the left from here.”

“Thank you, thank you so much.” Scully pelted to Mirren’s room and stood still in the doorway. Mirren lay onto her side, looking out the window. She was dressed in ugly yellow hospital clothing, her brown hair hung loosely over her shoulders, and still, Scully could see the bruises around Mirren’s neck.

Scully forced herself into the room and closed the door behind her, they needed some privacy.

Mirren looked up, she didn’t greet Scully, she didn’t smile.

Somehow this unsettled Scully even more than the bruises on her neck. She picked up a chair and put it beside the bed. She sat down in it and took Mirren’s hand into hers. They didn’t speak, there was nothing to say. Mirren returned to her position, put her head close to their conjoined hands and closed her eyes. Scully leaned forward and kissed Mirren on her head. One single tear dropped from Mirren’s eye onto the bedsheets. “Can you hold me?” Mirren asked with a voice that didn’t sound like hers, this one was hoarse, cracking like a teenage boy’s, so unlike her normal dark, tuneful voice.

“Of course I can,” Scully answered as she walked around the bed, put her pumps on the ground, threw her jacket on the chair on the other side of the bed and embraced Mirren from behind. Mirren was ice-cold and still slightly trembling. Scully pulled the sheets tighter around them and grabbed Mirren’s hands to warm them with hers. She found Mirren’s feet with her own, “They did get the evidence off you but didn’t bring you a hot-water bag?”

Mirren shrugged.

“Fuckers.”

She knew Mirren smiled, it was a tiny smile, but it was there, she could feel it in the way her chest tightened for only the slightest moment. Mirren turned so that now she was facing Scully, who nearly fell off the bed. Mirren grabbed Scully with an incredible force, considering the occurrences from earlier today, and pulled her close. Their foreheads against each other’s they lay entangled and intertwined intimately. “You are my hot water bag,” Mirren croaked softly.

“I’ll be anything you need me to be,” Scully answered.

Mirren looked at her for a very long time. Scully felt she was being dissected, rebuild, scanned, vetted, and screened. She underwent it more happily and gladly than she had ever undergone a screen test. Finally reassured, Mirren closed her eyes and nestled herself into Scully’s embrace. Scully made sure Mirren had drifted off, before she whispered, “I love you.”

***  
Jones drove responsible, but not responsible like a normal person, breaking some tiny rule every now and then, but annoyingly responsible, like waiting for the green light on an empty crossing. Mulder was fretting beside him.

“You know you can just drive, right?”

“But it’s red.”

“There is no one there.”

“As a police officer, you need to provide people with the right example.”

“Except there is no one here to provide that example of yours too.”

“It’s a slipping slope, you break a rule once, there will be a second and a third time, I’m not doing it.”

Mulder sighed and gave up. But he could swear he heard Jones whisper to himself: “White people, they ain't got no patience.” The light turned green and Jones drove further. A red car drove towards them, the sunlight fell on the driver of the vehicle and Mulder craned his neck to take a better look at him. He had seen that face before somewhere. In Washington at the airport talking to Scully, Steve Andrews! What was he doing here? Mulder frowned as Steve’s red Toyota passed Jones and him, then suddenly the pieces of the puzzle fit.  
Mirren raped by the father of Steve. Father of Steve murdered by Mirren. Mirren attacked by Steve. “Follow that car!” Mulder yelled at Jones.

Startled, Jones looked at Mulder, “What?”

“That red Toyota, follow it.”

“Why?”

Why? Because he, for some unknown reason, felt, no, knew, Mirren’s assailant was driving off in that vehicle?

“Doesn’t matter, turn around, I’m ordering you, Jones.”

Jones’s reflexes kicked in at the word order and he turned the car around.

Steve had quite the head start, though and Mulder urged Jones to go faster.

“But agent Mulder-”

“For crying out loud, Trooper Jones, I order you to chase that car.”

Steve saw the car coming, recognised the civilian car of the State Police and pressed down the gas pedal. The car’s engines roared as they flew over the cracked asphalt. They crossed the crossing once more, but now Jones didn’t wait for green, neither did Steve.

The red Toyota suddenly took a right. Jones had trouble following but still got the car on the impassable path without crashing. Mulder held on the handle above his door to keep himself from flying through the car. He admired Jones for still being able to keep down the pedal. Steve took a left, so Jones did too he drove around the corner and… pressed the brakes with immense force to keep the car from crashing into Steve’s. Steve had left the car on and fled the car on foot, into the woods.

“Fuck!” Mulder called out as he unbuckled himself, opened the car door and followed Steve into the woods. Jones sat paralysed, still trying to get over his distress. He saw himself crashing into the red Toyota over and over again.

Mulder ran into the woods, weapon drawn. He listened and heard faint footsteps in the distance, he ran in the direction of the sound and yelled, “Steve Andrews I order you to stop running in the name of the law!” Steve, quite naturally if you know you are guilty, didn’t, and Mulder continued his pursuit. He chased Steve deeper and deeper into the woods. Until… “Drop the gun on the ground and put your hands up!” Two men appeared from behind a tree, shotgun ready.

“I’m- pursuing- a suspect-” Mulder panted, while he did what the men requested.

“I don’t care, you’re trespassing, you need to leave.”

“I’m FBI.”

“Yeah right, and I’m Marilyn Monroe-HEY! Hand’s where I can see them.” The man raised the shotgun threateningly.

“I’m trying to get my badge.”

“Tiny, grab it for him,” the man with the shotgun said to the other.

“It’s in my- ooff,” Mulder wheezed as the little man hit him in his stomach and grabbed the badge from his inside pocket.

“It seems real, Tucker.”

Tucker is a fucker, Mulder quite childishly thought as he held up his hands once more.

“Let me see.”

The two men bowed over the document, then Tucker threw it at Mulder’s feet.

“I don’t care if you were the queen of England. Get off my land.”

“Alright, alright, I’m leaving,” Mulder said as he picked up his badge and gun and started walking back to his car, or so he thought.

“Hey, princess,” Tucker called from behind him, Mulder turned back to him, “your car is that way.” Tucker pointed in the right direction.

“Thanks,” Mulder sulked.

When he was halfway, he met Jones, “Agent Mulder!” He called when he saw Mulder was alone, “did he get away?”

“No I got him in my jeans pocket,” Mulder answered angrily, then clarified, “he got away.”

Solemn, the two men walked back to the car.


	14. To Have and To Have Not

Claire Dupont's heels clicked defiantly on the floor of the State Police station’s colourless, neon-lit hallway. Her brown-leather bag hung on her right shoulder and the latter was covered in a professional black jacket which matched her dark-blue-leather skirt, that appeared black in this lighting. Her low-cut, white blouse accentuated both the black of the skirt and jacket and the white of the blouse itself. She had pushed her hair up into a rigid bun that lost some of its rigidness as two front locks of her dark-brown hair fell alongside her pale face. Everything about her seemed to be chosen carefully and thoroughly in order to impel respect, to display a kind of superior femininity. It was why she could speak to men the way other women couldn’t or didn’t dare to. And it was why her superiors had chosen her to be the one to tell Captain Huckabee that his police force was from now on under the strict supervision of the DEA.

Defeated, Huckabee let himself fall back into his chair. “Why?” Was all he could minister.

“Because, sir, there have been several suspicious deaths of otherwise healthy young men in relation to what we believe to be a new kind of drug,” Claire formulated clearly and carefully, “and we also have reason to believe that some of your officers may know of or even use this drug themselves.”

Huckabee stayed silent. So did Claire.

“What will be the consequences?” Huckabee finally asked.

Claire smiled, “Nothing to be concerned about, I will observe and investigate leads.”

“Will you use a cover story?”

“Yes.”

Huckabee nodded, “So I won’t be able to inform my officers about the investigation?”

“No, some of them may be involved.”

“Right.” Huckabee sighed deeply.

“Can I inform my boss that you will be cooperating with us, sir?” Claire asked.

“Yes, yes of course,” Huckabee stayed silent pensively.

“Was there something else, sir?”

“What’s your cover story?”

“There are already to FBI agents in town regarding the disappearance of the Andrews girl, I’ll be joining them.”

“Do they know that?”

Claire smiled again, “Are they currently present in this building?”

“I’m not sure, if they are they’ll be in room eleven, Jones will take you there,” Huckabee stood with difficulty and walked to the door, “TROOPER JONES!” He waited, in vain. Surprised he walked into the hallway. “WALTERS!” A tanned man came walking towards them, he eyed the unknown woman beside his boss, she returned his gaze blankly, but rigidly and he averted his eyes to his boss. “Yes, sir?”

“Where is Jones?”

“I’m not sure, sir.”

“What do you mean you’re not sure?”

“I thought I saw him leaving with that FBI agent.”

“Where to?”

“There was a call of a rape at Baker’s motel-”

“The Baker girl? Again!?” Huckabee called out in shock his whole body tensed, Claire took note of it.

“I guess, sir, anyway I believe they left for the hospital,” Walters stated unimpressed.

“Both agents?”

“Yes, first the woman, then the man with Jones.”

Huckabee sighed wearily, “Well you heard him,” he turned to Claire.

Claire nodded, “I’ll be going to the hospital,” she faced towards Walters, “Which hospital was it?”

“Probably Pocahontas.”

“Thank you,” she spiralled back to Huckabee, “We’ll be in contact, captain.”

Huckabee nodded grumpily and Claire left.

***

Scully sat next to Mirren’s bed as she was reading Hemingway’s _To Have And Have Not_ to Mirren.

_‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I know. Don’t come near me. You reek of that woman.’_

_‘What do you reek of?’_

_‘Nothing. I’ve been sitting, talking to a friend.’_

_‘Did you kiss him?’_

_‘No.’_

_‘Did he kiss you?’_

_‘Yes, I liked it.’_

_‘You bitch.’_

_‘If you call me that I’ll leave you.’_

_‘You bitch.’_

Mirren lay with her eyes closed facing her, her lips slightly parted. When Scully paused for a moment, however, her eyelids, with their long eyelashes, fluttered open. Scully let the book lay in her lap and inhaled deeply as she stretched her stiff limbs.

“You can go for a walk if you want,” Mirren whispered, her voice was still not strong enough to speak normally.

“I want to keep you company,” Scully picked up the book again and resumed reading.

 _‘All right,’ she said. ‘It’s over. If_ -’

“I’ll come with you,” Mirren interrupted her.

“Don’t be silly.”

“You need to get out of this hospital,” Mirren stated as she sat up, she grimaced as her body ached. Scully was with her within a split second, the book hitting the ground.

“Mirren, your body isn’t strong enough,” she lectured as she supported Mirren.

“I’m going.”

“Mirren–” Scully stopped herself, she realised that what Mirren craved was a distraction. Anything to lead her attention away from that which was so permanently present, in every gaze she noticed, every smell she inhaled, and the pain in every move she made. Scully understood that she would have wanted and done it herself, she probably would have had less patience than Mirren had displayed.

“All right. Let’s get you something proper to wear.”

***

Jones followed agent Mulder into the Pocahontas hospital somewhat hesitant. Every time he had entered a hospital someone had died. That was logical he reasoned, each time he had gone to the hospital someone had been terribly ill or hurt. But still, he couldn’t shake the feeling the building evoked. Agent Mulder looked over his shoulder.

“Are you coming, Jones?”

“I am, I am.” Jones forced himself to follow the agent inside.

***

Claire steered the dull, grey Honda over the parking lot in front of the Pocahontas Memorial Hospital. She almost hit another car when she suddenly recognised the boring, grey Skoda she had seen before. Chilly anxiousness clawed at her heart, but she confined it. First, park the car, then think. And so she did. That car belonged to the tall man she had gotten together with on her first night in this place, so she needed to be prepared if she were to meet him here. Be calm, she told herself, she had an advantage over him, she knew he was here, he didn’t, she could use that if she needed it. In fact, it wasn’t a given he would make a scene, and even if he did, in every scenario she could think of she would win, she would only have to make sure she would not be alone with him. She exhaled, forced herself to relax and smiled at herself in the mirror. “Let’s roll.”

As she stepped out of the car and began walking towards the hospital’s entrance, she noticed two women leaving from the emergency exit. Claire stopped and saw the red-haired one support the other down the stairs. Intrigued, Claire moved stealthily towards the two.

***

Mirren had underestimated the distance they had to cover before they had even left the hospital building, she was already out of breath when they reached the end of the hallway. Despite Scully’s worried glares, she persisted stubbornly. Scully nudged her to the left but Mirren shook her head and nodded to the emergency exit. Scully’s eyebrows shot up, “You sure?”

Out or breath and unable to respond verbally, Mirren nodded.

Scully pushed the door open and supported Mirren outside. Mirren inhaled deeply, leaving the stink of illness and detergent behind her. Scully pressed a soft kiss on the back of Mirren’s head, careful to avoid her neck. Mirren did not respond. She probably wasn’t ready to accept let alone give any kind of physical affection, Scully thought, already regretting the little kiss. She was scared that she had crossed a line.

Mirren blinked away some tears, meticulously keeping her back turned towards Scully. Then she faced Scully and placed a tender kiss on Scully’s cheek, only to quickly spiral away from her again. But it was enough to lift any heavy feelings from Scully’s shoulders. Mirren grabbed the cold, iron railing of the emergency stairs in an attempt to descend, but Scully held her back, “Wait!” Scully moved passed Mirren, “I need to be in front of you in case you lose your balance.” Mirren waited. Neither of them noticed the brown-haired woman moving towards them.

***

Mulder walked towards the counter, “Hi, I’m here for Mirren Baker, could you tell me which room she’s in?”

The guy behind the counter looked at the man leaning slightly over the counter, he was the second to ask for his colleague today, earlier there had been this crazy redhead. “Are you a family-relation or the boyfriend?”

Mulder almost laughed, “I’m FBI,” he got out his badge.

The counter assistant inspected the document, looked legit, he wondered what kind of trouble Mirren had gotten herself into, he fell back into his chair and directed the FBI-agent; “Room 14, up the stairs, third door on the left.”

“Thanks. Come on Jones,”

Jones followed moodily, he really hated hospitals, their spotless white walls, the fake plants and the smell of cleanser that masked every scent, except that of illness.

They silently ascended the stairs, “Third room on the left,” Mulder mumbled to himself. He opened the door of room 14 and found it empty, except for a book dropped onto the ground, Mulder picked it up, To Have and To Have Not, Ernest Hemingway. Well, what he definitely did not have were the directions to the right room. He thoughtlessly placed the book on the chair, “Agent Mulder,” Jones called from the hallway, Mulder turned around to find Jones standing in the hallway, his weapon drawn.

“What?” Mulder walked into the hallway.

“There you are,” Garland in full hospital tenue stated, his revolver directed at Jones, “I believe we have unfinished business.”

“Garland, don’t do anything stupid.”

Garland scoffed without moving an inch. “Stupid, huh, funny coming from you. You did something incredibly stupid attacking me like that and then claiming I attacked you.”

Mulder stayed silent.

“You see this?” Garland pointed at his cheek which was covered in bandages, “You crushed my cheekbone, they had to rebuild it. And this,” Garland pointed at his eyebrow, “They’re not sure if the hair will ever grow back.”

“Do you want me to sum up all my injuries too?” Mulder asked sarcastically.

“Fuck you,” Garland yelled, tightening his grip on his weapon, “you were looking for that pretty partner of yours, weren’t ya?” Garland grinned, something dawned on Mulder.

“What did you do to her?” He said as he put a step towards Garland.

“Me? Nothing. Yet.”

“Where is she?” Another step forwards, Garland’s gun was still pointed at Jones, Mulder felt his throat clench with anger.

“How should I know?”

“Did you take her?”

“Take her? Not yet,” Garland’s mouth spoke defiantly.

“Agent,” Jones called Mulder back out of the hallway of anger he had been walking down.

“Do you want to hurt me, Garland?” Mulder asked.

“Hurt you? Are you kidding?” Garland’s gun moved slightly downwards.

“So you do?” Another step in his direction.

Garland looked at Mulder then fired his gun at Jones, the black man fell to the ground as Garland moved towards Mulder and put the gun underneath Mulder’s chin. “Oh, I want to hurt you all right. I want to rebuild that pretty face of yours into a whole new one.”


	15. The Distancing Continues

Mirren panted and clutched onto the railing of the stairs to keep her balance.

“Do you want to go back?” 

Mirren shook her head, go back and lay in a hospital bed some more? Fuck no. She gritted her teeth as she let her left leg descend one last time and put her foot on the ground.

Scully took her elbow and mumbled under her breath, “Almost there.”

They stood side by side, Mirren leaning heavily on Scully, “Into the garden?” Scully asked.

Mirren nodded as she caught her breath.

Scully supported her onto the gravelled path, Mirren suddenly tasted fear in the back of her mouth as she put her foot onto the gravel, it brought back memories she wasn’t ready to face yet.

“Are you okay?” A concerned Scully asked.

Again Mirren nodded although the abominable flavour didn’t disappear, she forced her other foot in front of the other. Right foot. Left foot. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left.

“Shall we sit here?”

Mirren looked up from her feet and noticed the wooden bench amid the trees and bushes Scully referred to. As a response Mirren compelled her feet to walk towards the bench. Scully helped her sit down. As her breath evened Mirren began to perceive the sounds around her, the birds chirping, leaves rustling, some insect buzzing by. It worked strangely comforting. But then she discerned something else, footsteps, on the gravel. Scully had heard them too. Mirren’s breath quickened as the adrenaline pumped through her veins. Scully put her hand on Mirren’s arm.

***

Claire debated whether following the two women into the garden next to the hospital would be the best thing to do. Her curiosity conquered her common sense and she pursued them. She found them sitting on a bench surrounded by bushes. The redhaired woman had her hand on the arm of the battered, brown-haired woman. Claire smiled at them, seemed to hesitate a moment then began, “I’m sorry did I startle you?”

The redhead answered, “No it’s okay.”

The brown-haired woman only blinked and seemed to shrink an inch as she sank back into the bench.

“Is she okay?” Claire asked the redhead, without averting her eyes from the bruises around the woman’s throat.

“I’m fine,” the brown-haired woman croaked, grimacing as she immediately regretted her decision to speak.

The redhead stroked and looked at the woman next to her with such a loving gaze that made Claire almost jealous. She would have liked someone to look at her that way, Claire shrugged the feeling off.

The redhead looked back at Claire, “She’s fine, thank you for asking.”

Claire nodded as a gunshot sounded. The three women turned their heads in the direction of the sound.

“Was that…” the redhead began.

“A gunshot,” Claire felt her gun situated underneath her left shoulder.

The red-haired woman looked at the form beside Claire’s chest, “Are you armed?”

“I am. You should stay here, I’ll check it out.”

The redhead stood in order to protest, but the brown-haired woman beat her to the punch.

“You should go with her.”

Suddenly it dawned on Claire why she had followed the two women; as the redhead looked down at the woman on the bench and the shape of a gun holder outlined itself against her body as well.

“Are you special agent Dana Scully?”

Surprised, Scully looked at the woman standing in front of her, “Yes, who are you?”

“I’m special agent Claire Dupont, I’m with the DEA.”

“DEA?” Scully’s brow furrowed.

“I’ll explain later,” Claire turned to walk away.

“Go!” She heard the brown-haired woman say to Scully.

“I’m not leaving you here,” Scully answered resolutely.

“I’ll be fine. If a person is shot in there he needs you more than I do. Just GO!”

Behind her, Claire perceived running footsteps closing in on her. Together the women ran to the hospital’s entrance. Anxious and panicked patients and staff members had gathered in the lobby. Claire and Scully got their badges out and asked where the gunshot had come from.

“Upstairs,” the counter assistant answered.

Scully pulled out her gun and Claire followed her example. The stairs had a twist in it, Scully peeked around the corner and motioned Claire to go around it. Claire did and the women continued up the stairs.

“He needs medical attention,” Scully heard the voice of Mulder say, she almost stormed into the hallway, throwing all caution to the wind, but Claire’s presence prevented her from doing so.

Claire heard the voice of the tall man from the bar at the side of the road. She nearly turned to leave, only Dana’s presence kept her from doing so.

The two women regarded each other as they debated silently what the next move would be. Scully finally made the decision. She sought Claire’s gaze and nodded sideways before she moved into the hallway, weapon drawn.

Scully quickly evaluated the occurrences unfolding in front of her. Garland pushing his gun into Mulder’s throat, Jones laying on the ground.

“Drop the gun,” Scully stated, her eyes and gun focused tightly on the man with the gun.

Garland spiralled towards her, pushing Mulder in front of him as a human shield.

“Scully!” Mulder produced before Garland muffled any further utterances.

“Hi there sexy,” he grinned.

“Drop the gun, Garland.”

The crazed man only pushed the gun harder up against Mulder’s throat as he snapped, “You drop it. Or he dies.”

Mulder winced as the threateningly cold point of Garland’s gun pressed against his neck. Scully saw Mulder flinch and decided to take another approach, “All right, all right,” she said as she slowly put her gun on the ground beside her. Claire was still hidden behind the corner awaiting Scully’s sign.

Garland grinned in triumph and loosened the pressure on Mulder’s throat.

“Come here,” Garland urged Scully. She complied.

“Closer.”

She acquiesced until she stood so close to Mulder she could see the relief in his eyes.

“Remove his gun.”

“I don’t have a gun,” Mulder clamoured.

“SHUT UP!” Garland’s gun painfully pressed itself against Mulder’s throat again. “Remove his gun,” he repeated.

Scully moved her hands inside Mulder’s jacket, tenderly searching for his gun. Mulder eyed her desperately, she returned his gaze, her brow furrowed and her eyes switching from his left eye to his right and back every two seconds.

“I thought he had taken you,” Mulder whispered so softly only Scully heard him.

Her brow furrowed even more and although her hands reassuringly stroked his chest and sides. He felt her distance herself even further away from him. His heart ached.

Scully found what she was looking for. Without pulling it out, she stated to Garland, “I found it, what do you want me to do?”

“Take it out with your index and thumb.”

Scully followed his instructions.

“Now put it on the ground.”  

She did.

“Good girl.”

Claire nigh shot him because of that degrading assertion. She had him in range, Scully needed only snap her fingers and this dangerous imbecile would lay dead at her feet. But she knew the redhaired FBI-agent was looking for a less lethal solution and thus, she waited.

“What next?” Scully asked Garland.

Garland stayed silent.

“Well?” Mulder added defiantly.

“Shut up, I’m thinking.” Garland’s eyes flew to Scully she returned his gaze coldly.

“Can I at least take a look at Jones?” She pleaded, “I’m a doctor.”

Garland’s eyes narrowed.

“Please?”

Garland finally nodded and Scully sat down next to Jones and took the man’s head into her hands. “Jones?”

The big man grunted softly and Scully sought for the bullet wound but found none. Instead, she found a bulletproof vest, with the little round of metal, previously a bullet, flat against it. Scully chuckled.

“What?” A confused Garland asked her.

Smiling, Scully looked up to him, “He wore a bulletproof vest.”

And without further ado, Jones raised his gun and shot Garland in his shoulder. He screamed. Mulder quickly took the gun from his hands as a second shot sounded and hit Garland in his leg. The man fell to the ground. Claire appeared from behind the corner while Scully helped Jones sit up.

“You okay?” Claire said to Scully who nodded, “You took a grand risk just there,” Claire added with an approving smirk on her face. Scully had to smile and focused on Jones once more. Claire faced Mulder who stood starstruck at the sight of her.

“Could you go downstairs and fetch a doctor, I think he needs one.”

Garland moaned, Mulder slowly walked in the direction of the stairs.

“Oh shut up,” Claire said to him, “Dana you should go to your friend in the garden.”

Scully stood so quickly Jones almost fell backwards, Claire caught him.

“Careful.”

“Sorry. I’ll… I won’t be long.”

“Take as long as you need.”

“Thank you,” Scully ran to the emergency exit and left the building. 


	16. Damaged Goods

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is somewhat shorter than the others, but I'm hoping that by writing shorter chapters I might be able to post more frequently. Please enjoy!

Mirren sat on the wooden bench amid the bushes and trees which leaves showed traces of brown and red already. She stared intensely at something only she could perceive. Her eyes were opened wide, plain fear displayed in them. Her breathing was shallow and frequent. The emotional strain caused by whatever she saw play out in front of her left her body trembling and shaking. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks, some accumulated in the corners of her mouth, others slid down to her chin and dripped onto her painfully tight pressed together thighs. A sudden deep breath seemed to break the spell she was under, her eyes suddenly focused on a branch fallen from the top of the tree.

A strong wind had violently torn the branch of its trunk and set it tumbling all the way down. Much like her own fall inset by Steve Andrews. The great height she had found herself on since she met Scully had been cruelly pulled from her, like the branch separated from the trunk that gave it life.

A flaming red leaf feathered down beside the branch. It got entangled between the twigs of the branch. Mirren looked at it in horror, she didn’t want to be one who entrapped Scully. Scully deserved more than that, more than someone broken like her. She closed her eyes as two tears fell from them, her throat clenched as she thought of Dana’s smile and the way her eyes lit up when she understood a clue. It hurt so badly.

Her eyes opened itself abruptly with a new found strength, she wasn’t going down this road of self-pity, that wasn’t her. She was going to be the actor, not the direct object. She brushed the tears of her face brusquely, feeling anger expand through her body when she perceived two gunshots, followed closely. The anger turned into fear. What if Dana was hurt? Mirren attempted to get up but found her legs were too weak to stand by herself and she fell on the ground. She hit the gravel and almost vomited. Her body couldn’t handle the emotional strain the gravel brought back. As she lay gagging on the ground, she could hear heels colliding hard with the metal of the emergency stairs. A few moments later Scully bent over her and helped her up.

Scully found Mirren gagging on the gravel after helping her sit up she hugged Mirren, tightly and rubbed her back.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” she whispered, “I’m here, you’re okay.”

Mirren clutched onto her like dear life itself and started sobbing into her shoulder. Her battered body trembled and shook with each sob. Scully started crying too, kissing Mirren’s head over and over again.

“I love you so much,” Scully whispered to her.

“You shouldn’t, I’m broken,” Mirren hiccupped.

Scully briefly let go of her to look her in the eye. “Are you kidding? That only makes me love you more.”

Tears streamed down Mirren’s face and snot accumulated itself under her nose. Mirren wiped it off. Scully took her in her arms once again and softly rocked back and forth until the sobs became less violent and frequent. Then she let go and took Mirren’s face in her hands.

“I want you to listen to me very carefully,” Scully began, “you might feel like you’re tainted and broken, but you’re not, not to me. I love you and I’ll love you as much as I can, I will not let you push me away just because you see yourself as ‘damaged goods’.”

Mirren stayed silent for a moment or two, letting Scully's words pervade. “I love you too,” was all she could minister.

Scully smiled, tears rolling down her cheeks as she kissed and put her forehead against Mirren’s.


	17. Claire Dupont's Unconventional Methods

She had to move quickly, Mulder could be back with a doctor any minute. Claire sat Jones down so that he could lean against the wall, he grunted softly. “Are you comfortable?” Claire asked concerned.

Jones chuckled, then groaned.

“I mean as comfortable as you can get, considering…” Claire added.

Jones nodded and caught his breath, “God it hurts.”

Claire smiled sympathetically, then got to the point, “Jones, I really need to ask the shooter some questions before—”

“Go ahead, I’ll be fine.”

“Thank you,” Claire got up and squatted next to the pathetic heap that was Garland.

“Your name is Garland, right?”

Garland looked at the woman squatting down beside him and nodded.

“So what made you attack an FBI agent, Garland?”

“He attacked me.”

“No he didn’t,” Jones mixed himself in the conversation, “you aimed a gun—”

Jones stopped midsentence when he noticed Claire’s facial expression.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

Claire gave him a curt nod and her eyes focused once again on the bleeding man on the ground.

“The FBI agent attacked you where?”

“At the crime scene.”

“In the forest?” Claire started to work out what he meant.

Garland nodded.

“Was there a particular reason why he attacked you?”

Garland hesitated somewhat too long before he answered, “A woman.”

“But there was something else wasn’t there?”

Garland’s cold eyes found hers, “No,” he defied.

Claire sighed, stood up and towered over him. She placed the sole of her pump on the shot wound in Garland’s leg. Garland’s eyes displayed horror and disbelief.

“There was something else wasn’t there?”

“No.”

Claire pressed her foot down only slightly, Garland gritted his teeth and groaned but said nothing. Claire pressed her foot further down.

Garland’s face contorted in pain, but he still said nothing. More pressure. Their eyes met.

The woman looked down upon him her eyes displayed nothing, they were blank, emotionless, it scared Garland to death. The contempt he could deal with, anger too, but this emotionless infliction of pain was different, she truly didn’t care.

“Fuck—stop, stop, I’ll tell you,” he finally panted.

Claire released the pressure her foot exerted only slightly.

“We—we found evidence, it was only when it started to have its effect that I knew what it was.”

“What did you find Garland?”

Garland shook his head and moaned.

“Garland!” She exerted more pressure again.

“Fuck—The pheromones, the pheromones.”

Claire heard voices coming from the direction of the stairs.

 “Who put it there?”

“I don’t know,” Garland moaned.

“A name, Garland” Claire demanded, as she exerted more pressure.

“I don’t know.”

She now pressed with almost all her body weight down upon the wound.

“Aaaah, ffuck,” Garland shouted, “Ian—Ian Coleman.”

“Thank you,” Claire released the wound and squatted down beside Jones, just as Mulder came around the corner followed closely by dr. Hayworth and dr. Berry and two nurses who immediately ran into two empty rooms and gathered two beds. While Dr Hayworth first concerned herself with Jones. Dr Berry, pensively, looked inside room 14, but when Garland moaned he quickly bent down to inspect the wounds and finally decided to take him into surgery. Garland was loaded onto the bed and driven off to the operating room. Jones, on the other hand, was helped up and lain down onto the other bed while dr. Hayworth checked him for injuries.

Claire stood beside the bed and held Jones’s hand. Just before he was driven off to a room in which dr. Hayworth could perform more tests, Jones pulled her closer and whispered, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell a soul.”

Claire smiled warmly at him, knowing Garland wouldn’t be able to her accuse her of any of her perhaps unconventional, but effective methods, “Thanks.”

As Jones was driven off, Claire felt Mulder walking up to her from behind, she turned towards him, arms folded. They stood regarding each other in silence. It was Claire who broke it, “I’m Claire Dupont, I’m with the DEA,” she extended her hand. Mulder took it, “I’m special agent Fox Mulder, I’m with the FBI.” Mulder now understood what he had recognised in her bag last night, the black, leathery thing had been her badge. He realised that he was still holding her hand and she was looking at him with an amused smirk on her face.

“Sorry,” he mumbled as he quickly let go of her hand.

“No worries,” she answered, “let’s go find that partner of yours.”


	18. I Do Not Know

He had sent Scully and Claire to the motel, to sleep. He would sit with Mirren, she wouldn’t be alone. Scully had protested vehemently, but eventually, she had given in to both Claire’s and Mulder’s arguments. She needed some rest so that tomorrow she would be fresh and be able to both, care for Mirren and continue their investigation. And therefore, now Mulder sat next to Mirren’s hospital bed reading the book that earlier Scully had to Mirren.

_‘I’m a good man,’ he said, ‘You oughtn’t to talk to me like that.’_

_‘They can’t make it fast enough to keep you a good man,’ I told him._

“Fox,” a little voice on the hospital bed spoke. Mulder looked up and met Mirren’s eyes. She looked so small in that majestic bed. The neon lighting made her skin appear even paler and the bruises around her neck darker. 

“Yes?”

“Why did you kiss me?”

Mulder slowly let the book descend onto his knees. Genuinely confused he asked, “What do you mean?”

“Why did you kiss me?” Mirren repeated, then added, “In the shower.”

Mulder stayed silent, opening his mouth to speak but closing it again when he realised he didn’t know what to answer. “I don’t know,” he finally responded.

It stayed silent for a while. But Mulder didn’t return to his reading. He couldn’t. Why had he kissed Mirren? Why had he slept with Claire? Thoughts raced through his brain. He had wanted something from them, something they had briefly satisfied, but afterwards had left him filled with dread and some feeling he didn’t know how to classify. It wasn’t guilt per se. It was something else, something worse. Empty. He felt empty, there was a void inside of him that he tried to fill, but somehow couldn’t. He looked at Mirren, who was still regarding him closely. Her head placed on her hand, which lay on the pillow. She lay in the foetal position, her knees pulled up to her belly as to protect herself from repeated blows. But her eyes were fiercely focused on him. A strength went out from her, she radiated it. It was a sad strength, one that she shouldn’t have to display. Mulder put the book down by the chart at the end of the bed and moved his chair closer to Mirren. She watched him come closer.

“You want to know why I kissed you?”

Mirren waited a long time before she answered, looking him straight in the eye, “Yes.”

Mulder felt a serenity come over him that he had only ever experienced with Scully when they were together late in his motel room. She, lying on the bed, he, sitting on the ground leaning against the bed with his back and they talked. He had told her his story truthfully, had left no details out. Mirren moved to a different position, her legs stretched and her head placed on her hand which was supported by her elbow leaning on the bed. She lay exactly as Scully had lain so many years ago. He almost sat down beside the bed but restrained himself. A nostalgic feeling came over him and made him careless and courageous.

“I kissed you, because… because I have an emptiness inside of me that I’m desperately trying to fill.” Mirren stayed silent so he went on. “It’s a void that, I suspect, was caused by the abduction of my sister and has never been refilled.” Mulder saw a tear slide down onto the pillow from Mirren’s eye, he reached out and tenderly touched Mirren’s cheek in an attempt to console her, her eyelids closed.

“But that’s not the only reason.” They opened again. “There is something about you that just… mesmerises me in a way only one other person has ever mesmerised me.”

“Dana,” Mirren mumbled.

Mulder smiled, “Yes, Dana.” He wasn’t used to using Scully’s first name, it tasted alien on his tongue.

Mirren looked at him with tears in her eyes, she briskly wiped them away and said, “You’re stupid, you know.”

“What?” Mulder asked amazed at the sudden change of tone.

“For letting her get away.”

“I’m not letting her get away,” Mulder protested weakly.

“Yes, you are. The fact that you never call her by her first name, that’s dumb. Someone’s first name is something intimate, you keep a distance between you two by insisting on calling her by her last name.” Mirren coughed hard. Mulder helped her up and rubbed her back while the harshest coughs hurt her throat.

“So I should call her by her first name?”

Mirren laughed painfully and started coughing again.

“If only it were so simple,” she finally croaked, “can I have some water?”

“Sure,” Mulder stood up to get the cup filled with water from the bedside table and supported her as she drank from it.

“Thanks.”

“Your welcome.” Mirren closed her eyes and leaned into him, placing her head on his shoulder. Mulder brushed a hair out of her face. Her breathing was frequent and strangely calming. And even after all the shit she went through, she still smelled like chamomile. Mirren opened her eyes again, meeting his. They just regarded each other for a while, until Mirren moved her head closer to him and tenderly pressed her lips onto his. At first, he was startled, feeling her soft, concentrated lips press on his, then he softly pushed her away.

“What are you doing?”

Mirren stayed silent for a while, averted her eyes to the sheets covering her and whispered, “I don’t know.”

Again silence.

"I just... I guess I wanted to know if I still was capable..." Mirren slowly spoke.

"Capable of what?" Mulder frowned.

"Of—you know—loving…” Mirren avoided his gaze.

Mulder stayed silent, then asked, “Do you even like me?”

Mirren’s face displayed confusion, she frowned and met his gaze, “I—you mean romantically?”

Mulder nodded.

Mirren’s cheeks turned red. “I just—I— uhm— Well, you kissed me first and—I—I don’t know—It felt good. And now you’re here and I just… I wanted to know— I got the urge to kiss you and I did.” She finally concluded.

“And Sc—Dana?”

She started tugging the sheets violently as he pronounced Scully’s name. She swallowed and rubbed her forehead with her left hand. “I love her.”

“Then how can you—”

Mirren anxiously looked him in the eye and he stopped mid-sentence.

“You don’t know,” he formulated for her.

She nodded.

Mulder was quiet.

Mirren felt panic grabbing and squeezing her battered throat tightly, she had fucked up, Fox would tell Dana and she would drop her. She managed to swallow and started to plead, “Can we just, I mean, forget this ever—”

Mulder bowed down, took Mirren’s face in his hands and kissed her. Mirren, surprised, responded cautiously, but eventually allowed him access and pulled him closer. She tasted different than last time, back then it had been a combination of coffee and mint-flavoured chewing gum. Now it was just chocolate, the dessert the hospital kitchen had served he remembered, it had been chocolate pudding. Their lips parted, catching their breath, foreheads joined his hand on her cheek, her hand on the back of his neck.

“You’re able to love, alright,” Mulder remarked dryly.

Mirren laughed, which let to another cough attack.

“And I guess this makes us even,” he added.

“No,” she denied and leaned in for another kiss. They separated again.

“Now, we’re even,” Mirren stated.


End file.
